Citizens concerned about saving an endangered species like the sea turtle have wanted shrimpers to use turtle excluder devices. Sea turtles drown in shrimp trawls. A turtle can hold its breath for about 90 minutes. The trawls stay underwater for longer than that. The National Academy of Sciences estimated that 55,000 threatened and endangered sea turtles drown every year in American shrimp nets. By using TEDs the death can be reduced by an estimated 97%.
Shrimpers object to the use of TEDs. They claim that more shrimp would be lost from the nets. Another claim is that the workers would be injured by the TEDs and the gear would be damaged by the device. Shrimpers also state they rarely catch turtles in their nets.
Actual experience shows that in 1990 and 1991, more shrimp was caught in the Gulf of Mexico when TEDs were required. No serious injuries or loss of boat gear were found. The best point of all is that the number of strandings of drowned sea turtles dropped dramatically and the amount of nesting activity on the beach increased.
In 1980 the
National Marine and Fisheries Service introduced the TED. The TED is a
grid of metal bars with an opening either at the top or the bottom. The
grid fits into the narrow part of the shrimp traw. When a large animal
like a turtle hits the grid bars they will flow through the opening. Smaller
animals like shrimp will pass through the bars and be caught in the net.
Current studies at Texas A&M want the turtle to be able to swim out
of a shrimp net within five minutes.
TED regulations
were not enforced until September 1989. The current regulations require
the use of TEDs on all shrimp trawlers 25 feet or longer in offshore waters
in the Atlantic from May 1 through August 31 and in the Gulf of Mexico
from March 1 through November 30. Off shore vessels less than 25 feet and
all vessels in inshore waters must use TEDs or limit the time the nets
are towed to 90 minutes from March 1 through November 30 in the Gulf. The
current recommendation by the National Marine and Fisheries Service is
that TEDS be required all year long both inshore and offshore in the Gulf
of Mexico and the Atlantic. TEDs will probably save more turtle lives than
any other act.