JOINT NEWS RELEASE
- NOAA Fisheries Service - Office for Law Enforcement
- U.S. Coast Guard
- South Carolina Department of Natural Resources
- Georgia Department of Natural Resources
FOR IMMEDIATE RELEASE
May 5, 2005
CONTACT: |
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Mark Oswell, NOAA, (310) 427-2300
Dana Warr, USCG, (904) 564-7622
Mike Willis, SCDNR, (803) 734-4133
Robin Hill, GADNR, (770) 918-6789
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STATE, FEDERAL AGENCIES TEAM UP TO PROTECT
ENDANGERED SEA TURTLES
JACKSONVILLE, Fla. -- The NOAA Fisheries Service – Office
for Law Enforcement, the South Carolina Department of Natural Resources,
the Georgia Department of Natural Resources and the U.S. Coast
Guard are teaming up again this year with commercial fisherman
to protect threatened and endangered sea turtles along the coasts
of South Carolina and Georgia.
The commercial shrimp-fishing season will likely open in state
waters along the South Carolina and Georgia coasts in early to
mid-June and fishermen trawling in those areas are likely to encounter
female sea turtles that are returning to their home nesting sites
to lay eggs and juveniles of several species returning to summer
foraging grounds. Federal and state regulations require fishermen
to utilize Turtle Excluder Devices (TEDs) in their nets so the
surface-breathing turtles can escape the nets without being drowned.
Coast Guard boarding officers from Georgia and South Carolina recently
attended TED training at the Coast Guard's Southeast Regional Fisheries
Training Center in Charleston, S.C., in preparation for law enforcement
efforts during the upcoming shrimp season. The National Marine
Fisheries Service -- Pascagoula Lab will also be sending TED gear
experts to locations in South Carolina and Georgia to conduct training
for law enforcement and to assist in dockside courtesy inspections.
"
This is an ideal situation for the shrimpers, law enforcement and
sea turtles," said Petty Officer Jason Lind, an instructor
at SRFTC. The ultimate goal of law enforcement is compliance. If
we can ensure the shrimpers' TEDs are in compliance before the
season opens, we are all getting a head start on our job, which
is to protect sea turtles along our coast."
The TED is a grid of bars with an opening either at the top or
the bottom. The grid is fitted into the neck of a shrimp trawl.
Small animals like shrimp slip through the bars and are caught
in the bag end of the trawl. Large animals such as turtles and
sharks, when caught at the mouth of the trawl, strike the grid
bars and are ejected through the opening.
NOAA Fisheries Service has been able to show that TEDs are effective
at excluding up to 97% of sea turtles with minimal loss of shrimp.
“
We believe that the TEDs, now approved, are efficient at reducing
sea turtle mortality,” said Sally Murphy, a biologist with
the S.C. Department of Natural Resources. “The means to lower
mortality is now compliance and enforcement.”
Data collected aboard research vessels in South Carolina indicates
interaction rates between shrimp boats and sea turtles is relatively
high.
“
We calculate that hundreds or thousands of interactions take place
every season, so the relatively few sea turtle strandings we see
compared to the interaction rate suggests that TEDs are working
pretty well,” said David Whitaker, a fishery manager of the
SCDNR.
"
The serious decline in sea turtle nest over the years has caused
alarm for the future of the species," said Col. Terry West,
chief of Georgia DNR Law Enforcement. By conducting courtesy TED
checks, we can assure that commercial shrimp boats are using a
legal device before they start to fish, thereby helping to decrease
the number of strandings we have each year and increasing the sea
turtle's chance for survival."
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