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The Development And Evaluation Of Small Specialized Turtle Excluder Devices To Reduce Sea Turtle Bycatch In Various Small Shrimp Gears, Meghan P. Gahm

University of New Orleans Theses and Dissertations

In the southeastern United States, skimmer trawls, pusher-head trawls, wing nets, and small try nets (headrope length less than 12-ft (3.66-m)) are exempt from using a turtle excluder device (TED) and instead must adhere to tow time restrictions as a mode to mitigate sea turtle bycatch. However, observer and stranding data indicate that these tow times may often be exceeded and result in mortality of sea turtles. The National Marine Fisheries Service (NMFS) published a notice of proposed rulemaking in December 2016 to extend TED requirements to other trawl types, however there has been limited development of specialized TEDs for …