Turtle Excluder Devices (TEDs)

WWF-India's Proposed Intervention

Unlike the fishermen in USA and other advanced maritime countries who go for exclusive shrimp fishing, the fishermen in Indian coasts want a mixed catch of shrimp and fish in their trawl net.

The Georgia Jumper TED is meant to exclude all the by-catches including fish and retain only shrimp in the net bag. Conventional design of the Georgia Jumper therefore needs to be modified to comply with the Indian fishermen's desire for mixed catch.

A simple reform can ensure the retention of mixed catch of shrimp and fish in the trawl net along with exclusion of turtles and other large size by-catch like Dolphins, Sharks etc. Firstly, enlarging the space between the bars would allow the fish to pass through into the cod end.

Second, an upper opening would help turtles escape from the net while preventing the escape of small and big fish. This is suitable for Orissa, where the problem of bottom debris is minimal. The revised design will need to be subjected to repeated field testing in different parts of the country to arrive at an appropriate design for each particular coast. When a suitable design of TED is thus formulated for a particular coast, the next step would be to demonstrate it to the community of trawlers to elicit their voluntary compliance for the device.

WWF-India would like to facilitate setting up of a mechanism where Turtle Excluder Devices (TEDs) are distributed and demonstrated to both small and large-scale trawler operators. Similarly, WWF-India would like to raise awareness on this issue specially by putting up TED's guidelines on board trawlers. This mechanism could be established at various locations on both East & West coasts & Islands in the country.