Fishery-Dependent Turtle Excluder Device Catch Assessment Data: Skimmer Trawl

Skimmer trawls are utilized throughout the southeastern United States to target penaeid shrimp (Penaeidae). Because the codends of these trawls can be readily retrieved, skimmer trawls are allowed to utilize restricted tow times (55 and 75 minute, seasonally) in lieu of Turtle Excluder Device (TED) requirements as a sea turtle bycatch mitigation measure. However, observations aboard commercial vessels indicate that tow times are often exceeded. In 2008, the Southeast Fisheries Science Center Mississippi Laboratories began investigating the feasibility of TED use in skimmer trawls. Dependent testing was conducted aboard twin-rigged contracted commercial vessels during the 2008 and 2009 fishing seasons in the coastal waters of Alabama and Mississippi. The experimental design consisted of paired comparisons designed to examine shrimp catch retention, bycatch reduction, and TED usability. A TED was installed in one net (treatment), while the other was left naked with no TED installed (control). The TED was switched between port and starboard nets daily to remove potential vessel side bias. Data consists of tow level data for each net (treatment vs control) for five major catch categories; shrimp, finfish, non-shrimp crustaceans, other invertebrates, and debris. Start and end locations, times, and depths were recorded for each tow along with vessel identifier, date, tow speed, and location of the TED (port vs starboard). Data were used to determine TED efficiency with regard to shrimp catch and bycatch reduction. All dependent skimmer trawl TED testing data after 2009 were collected by the Southeast Fisheries Observer Program (SEFOP).

To investigate the feasibility of Turtle Excluder Device use in skimmer trawls.

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Datasheets were checked in the field after sampling and data were checked after entry into the database. The principal investigators review the data for content to ensure the relevance/accuracy of data collected.

Data resides on Networked Attached Storage (NAS) environment. Security patches/updates are immediately applied to the host environment. Data is stripped/mirrored using RAID 50 technology to protect data from disk failure. Nightly backups are preformed and files are written to magnetic tape and stored in an onsite / offsite location.

Trawl catch is sorted to shrimp, finfish, non-shrimp crustaceans, other invertebrates, and debris. Shrimp and selected finfish are identified to species. Catch and length frequency data are recorded onto datasheets. Datasheets were checked in the field after sampling and data were checked after data entry. The principal investigators review the data for content to ensure the relevance/accuracy of data collected.