Turtle Excluder Device Certification Testing Data

Since 1988, the Southeast Fisheries Science Center Mississippi Laboratories has conducted Turtle Excluder Device (TED) certification testing that utilizes captive-reared sea turtles obtained from the SEFSC, Galveston Laboratory. The objectives of the study are to evaluate candidate TEDs for sea turtle exclusion efficiency following a standardized small turtle testing protocol (Federal Register, Vol. 55, No. 195). The protocol consists of towing a 50 ft, western jib trawl directly astern of a vessel at a towing speed of 2.5 kts. A messenger wire is incorporated into the trawl and attached to the towing vessel. Turtles are transported from the vessel to the trawl inside a herculite bag via the messenger wire. Three SCUBA divers are utilized to conduct the test. Diver one releases each turtle into the trawl, diver two records elapsed time and captures escaping turtles or removes captured turtles from the trawl. Diver three records the entire sequence with a video camera. Once released into the trawl, each turtle is given five minutes to escape through the candidate TED and either scored as an escape or capture. Each year, a control TED and candidate TED are exposed to 25 turtle trials and are scored accordingly. The performance of the control TED for a given year is utilized to determine the sea turtle exclusion efficiency of candidate TEDs and determine if designs pass or fail. All TEDs that pass the certification protocol are considered allowable gear for use in commercial shrimp trawl fisheries both domestically and internationally. Currently, data from 2007 to 2014 are included in this database with previous years existing in paper form only. Data prior to 2007 will be included in this dataset in the future. Data recorded include measurements of various TED components, test number, turtle identifier, turtle release position, turtle activity level, turtle escape or capture, and turtle escape time.

To evaluate candidate Turtle Excluder Devices for sea turtle exclusion efficiency following a standardized small turtle testing protocol.

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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 striped/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.

Field data are recorded onto datasheets. 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.