Meeting begin at 6 p.m. at Larose Regional Park and Civic Center
The National Marine Fisheries Service will hold meetings tonight in Larose and on Tuesday in Belle Chasse to discuss requiring turtle excluder devices, TEDs, in all shrimp boats that fish with skimmer trawls. Skimmer trawls are used primarily in shallow water, such as Louisiana's coastal waters, bays and estuaries.
View full sizeA turtle excluder device, or TED, sits at lower left in the shrimp net above. Shrimpers say TEDs reduce their catch and that the proposal will place another financial burden on a shrimping fleet that is already on its knees because of competition from shrimp imports. They also argue that despite a federal analysis largely stating otherwise, the turtle deaths may not be because of shrimp trawl nets.
The National Oceanic and Atmospheric Administration's fisheries service estimates 28,127 sea turtles are captured annually by shrimpers and that the TEDs will prevent 5,515 turtle deaths a year. If NOAA decides the rule is warranted, it would take effect by March 15, 2013.
There are five species of sea turtles inhabiting the Gulf of Mexico and the Atlantic Ocean, and all are protected under the Endangered Species Act: loggerhead, green, Kemp's ridley, hawksbill and leatherback. After a surge in turtle drownings, environmental groups in 2011 called for the Gulf shrimp fishery to be closed until turtle protections were enacted.
As part of a settlement with the groups, the NOAA's fisheries service proposed the TEDS rule. There are also time limits on skimmer trawls based on the time of year. But NOAA argues that shrimpers often don't comply with such time regulations and that they are nearly impossible to enforce.
Documenting trawl time violations requires enforcement personnel to be close enough to observe when a trawl is cast and when it is removed. And while a federal law passed in 1987 already requires that larger shrimp trawl nets -- usually used more offshore -- have TEDs, a Louisiana law prohibits state wildlife agents from enforcing the federal statute, claiming there is little proof that shrimping is a significant cause of turtle deaths.
NOAA estimates that the newly proposed rule for skimmer and other similar smaller trawl nets would affect 2,248 Louisiana shrimpers, compared with 65 in North Carolina, 62 in Mississippi and 60 in Alabama.
The National Marine Fisheries Service, in conjunction with state agencies, last year performed necropsies on several turtles that were stranded -- washed ashore, dead or alive, or found floating dead or alive, generally in a weakened condition -- between March and June 2011, and determined the two primary possible causes of death were forced submergence or effects from harmful algal blooms.
NOAA stated that "the only known plausible cause" of forced submergence is capture in fishing gear, and sampling by federal officials showed that TEDs compliance was inadequate.
The Larose meeting will be held today from 6 to 8 p.m. at the Larose Regional Park and Civic Center, 307 E. 5th Street. The Belle Chase meeting will be Tuesday from 4 to 6 p.m. at the Belle Chasse Community Center, 8398 Louisiana 23.
Additional meetings will be held on Wednesday in Mississippi and on June 13 in Alabama.
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Benjamin Alexander-Bloch can be reached at bbloch@timespicayune.com or 504.826.3321.