Flexible turtle excluder device (TED): an effective tool for Mediterranean coastal multispecies bottom trawl fisheries

Published source details Lucchetti A., Punzo E. & Virgili M. (2016) Flexible turtle excluder device (TED): an effective tool for Mediterranean coastal multispecies bottom trawl fisheries. Aquatic Living Resources, 29, 201-201.
Share Tweet Email

This study is summarised as evidence for the following.

	Action	Category
	Install exclusion and escape devices on fishing gear Action Link

Install exclusion and escape devices on fishing gear

A replicated, controlled study in 2014 on muddy-sandy seabed in the northern Adriatic Sea (Lucchetti et al. 2016) found that using an upward-facing flexible grid with escape hole (‘turtle excluder device’) in a bottom-trawl net allowed loggerhead turtles Caretta caretta to escape after entering the net. No statistical tests were carried out. Nets with a flexible grid and escape hole allowed two loggerhead turtles Caretta caretta to escape¸ while one turtle was caught in an unmodified net. Commercial fish catch was similar between modified and unmodified nets (modified net: 8–26 kg/hr; unmodified net: 10–34 kg/hr). Fifty-five bottom trawl trials were carried out (20–40 m depths) in spring, autumn and winter 2014. A total of 25 trawls used the experimental turtle excluder device and 30 used a traditional net as a control (nets were 58 m long). The turtle excluder device was a circular plastic grid set at an upward angle with a top escape hole (a net panel with three sides sewn onto the trawl net) installed front of the codend. Escapes from modified nets were monitored using an underwater camera.

(Summarised by: Katie Sainsbury)