UNO awarded $232,500 grant to design device that protects sea turtles from being captured in small shrimping nets
The University of New Orleans has been awarded a $232,500 grant to design a device that protects sea turtles from being captured in small shrimping nets. Federal law has long required shrimpers to use turtle excluder devices, or TEDS, in their nets, but the technology has been limited to use by shrimpers using vessels longer than 25-feet with nets designed for fishing deeper waters. Associate professor of earth and environmental sciences, Martin O’Connell, says shrimpers using smaller nets in shallower waters inshore have no options that enable them to keep the shrimp in and the turtles out. Most sea turtle species have been classified as threatened or endangered since 1978. Data suggests the primary cause of sea turtle death is incidental capture in U.S. shrimp trawls. Link 14:36
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