Finfish Catch Reduction in South Atlantic Shrimp Trawls Using Three Designs of By-catch Reduction Devices

Abstract

Abstract Standard shrimp trawls used in the southeastern U.S. commercial fishery were modified in an attempt to reduce the amount of unwanted fish (by-catch) retained during normal shrimp trawling procedures. A sampling design was used to test the effectiveness of by-catch reduction devices (BRDs) towed in combination with unmodified nets in coastal waters off Brunswick, Georgia, in 1990. Several problems hampered statistical analysis of the data, including slight differences in the towing of port and starboard nets, onboard modification of BRDs during testing to correct design deficiencies, and seasonality of shrimp catches in combination with large masses of sargassum and jellyfish in trawls during fall sampling. The modified Parrish turtle excluder device (TED) was the only BRD that had a significant reduction (alpha = 0.05) in the percent difference in total biomass compared to the control net. By-catch reduction was not consistent for other designs. No significant loss of marketable-sized fish was ob...