THE VIRGINIAN-PILOT
Copyright (c) 1994, Landmark Communications, Inc.
DATE: Monday, July 25, 1994 TAG: 9407250044
SECTION: LOCAL PAGE: B1 EDITION: NORTH CAROLINA
SOURCE: BY LANE DEGREGORY, STAFF WRITER
DATELINE: CROATAN SOUND LENGTH: Long : 151 lines
On a sunny afternoon in the sound near Wanchese, a shrimp trawler dragged two nets across the murky bottom.
Jellyfish, crabs and croaker filled the first net, a traditional type long used by watermen. The second net contained gear recently mandated by the state - and only half as many unwanted fish.
Captain and crew were delighted.
For the past three years, fishermen have been required to include ``fish excluder devices'' in their shrimp nets.
Last week, a marine biologist proved the devices work.
``The results are definitely encouraging,'' North Carolina Marine Fisheries biologist Sean McKenna said after spending three days aboard a state trawler two weeks ago and hauling in more than 100 pounds of jumbo shrimp each day. ``With the fish excluders, we had a 49 percent overall reduction in the amount of fish we caught.
``That's good news for commercial fishermen. And it's a great benefit to the biologists.''
Since the shrimping industry began in earnest - less than three decades ago - trawl-boat operators have been trying to keep from trapping unwanted creatures, including slitting the tops of their nets to let fish escape. While shrimp stop swimming and usually fall to the bottom of meshes, many fish can escape out the top. That means fewer fish die and are tossed overboard.
Those attempts prompted the development of the excluder devices.
Three years ago, North Carolina became the only state that requires fish excluder devices,'' said McKenna, whose office is in Washington, N.C.
He said that similar requirements will be adopted by other states.
Dragging 30-foot nets across the sandy floors of the sound, trawl boats pick up everything in their path. Besides shrimp, the meshes collect mounds of spot, piles of croaker, and dozens of trout, flounder and other baby fish, most less than four inches long.
Shrimpers pick out the shrimp - and toss the rest back. Some species survive. Thousands of fish die.
But fish excluder devices help about half of the fish escape.
Made of metal, in four- to nine-inch diameter diamonds, fish excluders are wide at one end and pointed at the other. The smaller side is sewn into shrimp nets, stretching the mesh in that area. The larger end is the escape route.
``When the state began mandating FEDs, they just said you have to have one in your net,'' McKenna said. ``The idea is to reduce the amount of bycatch by using this special gear.''
With a $200,000 federal fisheries grant, McKenna and his crew of state biologists are well on their way to perfecting the process - and proving the fish excluders do what they're supposed to do.
Researchers boarded more than a dozen commercial shrimp trawlers across the coast this month to test different designs of fish excluders and to count and weight different species of bycatch.
McKenna and a three-man crew took the state research vessel off Roanoke Island and conducted their own experiment.
``We got a special exemption to not use a fish excluder on one net, so that was the control side. In the other net, we've been using a variety of types of fish excluders and moving them around,'' McKenna said from the deck of the 44-foot Carolina Coast. ``The placement we had today with this nine-inch diamond really seemed to work best so far.''
Set 15 mesh squares down from the top center, the excluder device McKenna used Thursday drastically reduced the amount of fish trapped in the net. Shrimp catches dropped from 60 pounds to 58 pounds with the excluder. But that's only a 3.3 percent loss.
Crab catches, however, were reduced from 233 to 168 pounds by using an excluder: 28 percent less waste. Croaker catches dropped from 234 to 114 pounds: a 51 percent reduction. And spot saw a dramatic 82 percent decline between the net without an excluder - and the one with it.
``The federal government can shut down a fishery if it can't meet specific bycatch requirements,'' McKenna said. ``This year, they required a 50 percent reduction in weakfish - gray trout - bycatch. Today, we made the quota when that species dropped 61 percent with a fish excluder on the net.''
Although many state and federal regulations frustrate fishermen, most agree that fish excluders benefit shrimpers. Crews spend hours poring through piles of jellyfish-covered fish looking for shrimp anyway. The fewer fish they have to deal with the better.
And watermen realize the long-term results of fish excluder devices - preserving future fish populations - is worth the extra $20 to $30 purchase with each new net.
``Some of the guys accepted them so readily, they put more than one fish excluder in each net already,'' said New River Nets owner Melvin Shepard. As president of the state Coastal Federation and a longtime commercial fishermen spokesman, Shepard said he ``endorses fish excluder devices 100 percent.
``I hear zero complaints about FEDs,'' Shepard said Friday. ``And I won't sell a net out of here without one. You don't hear griping or groaning about the FEDs like you did with the turtle excluder devices which were dropped on us like an atomic bomb. Fish have been a problem for shrimpers for a long, long time.
``The only negative comments I've heard about fish excluders is `Will it really reduce bycatch enough?' So far, 95 percent of the reaction has been positive.''
McKenna plans to present the findings of his six-month study to the state fisheries division in January. Eventually, he and Shepard believe, fish excluder devices not only will be required - but certain shapes and settings will be mandated as well.
``We hope the fishermen will have a couple of years still to work with fish excluders so they don't feel like we're cramming them down their throats,'' McKenna said. ``We're getting data from their boats so they know it's not just laboratory research.
``After all, fishermen are the gear experts. They originally invented fish excluders, of sorts. We're just perfecting their work.'' ILLUSTRATION: Trying to find the perfect shrimp net
DREW C. WILSON/Staff
State biologist Jeff Ross releases the catch from a net equipped
with a ``fish excluder device'' while aboard the Carolina Coast, a
shrimp trawler.
LEFT: Ross measures the weight of a small flounder while cataloging
bycatch from a shrimp net. ABOVE: The shrimp industry long has tried
to prevent fish from being caught in nets because shrimp must be
picked out - and everything else tossed back. ``Fish excluder
devices'' appear capable of helping in that task - as well as
preserving future fish populations.
DREW C. WILSON/Staff
Marine Fisheries biologist Sean McKenna is testing ``fish excluder
devices.'' ``With the fish excluders, we had a 49 percent overall
reduction in the amount of fish we caught,'' he said.
FISH EXCLUDER DEVICES
North Carolina - the northernmost shrimping grounds on the
mid-Atlantic - is the only state that requires fish excluder devices
on shrimp trawl nets.
In 1992, commercial fishermen hauled 5.5 million pounds of shrimp
onto North Carolina docks, a value of $10.9 million.
Last year, trawl boats brought 6.8 million pounds of shrimp to
shore, a value of $13.6 million.
SHRIMP TALES
On a nine-hour trip Thursday, North Carolina Marine Biologist
Sean McKenna and a three-man trawl boat crew dragged two 30-foot
nets across the Croatan Sound floor eight separate times. One of the
nets contained a ``fish excluder device,'' designed and
state-mandated to reduce the amount of small fish that are trapped
in the net and eventually thrown overboard. The other net was
unmodified. This is what they caught:
Species Without With Percent
fish excluder fish excluder reduction
Shrimp 60 pounds 58 pounds 3.3%
Crab 233 pounds 168 pounds 27.9%
Spot 72 pounds 13 pounds 81.9%
Croaker 234 pounds 114 pounds 51.3%
Gray trout 9 pounds 3.5 pounds 61.1%
Other 269 pounds 218 pounds 18.9%
Total 877 pounds 575 pounds 34.5%
by CNB