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Commercial Fisheries News
Volume 32 Number 12
July 2005
Scallopers back turtle chains, gear research
BARNEGAT LIGHT, NJ – Prompted by a request from industry, the National Marine Fisheries Service (NMFS) has published a proposed rule to require the use of “turtle chains” on scallop dredge boats fishing in the Mid-Atlantic each year from May through November.
At the same time, gear experts and industry, with help from NMFS, are continuing to investigate turtle behavior, feeding habits, and how the animals interact with turtle chains. They’re also testing a brand new dredge configuration designed to greatly reduce turtle catches.
The turtle chain proposal started off when the Fisheries Survival Fund (FSF), in conjunction with the Garden State Seafood Association, petitioned NMFS last summer for emergency action to require chains seasonally on all scallopers fishing in the Mid-Atlantic.
NMFS determined it couldn’t take action under the Magnuson-Stevens Fishery Conservation and Management Act but agreed to follow up on the request through rule-making under the Endangered Species Act (ESA).
This latest proposed rule, published in the Federal Register on May 27, is an ESA action. NMFS held two public hearings on the proposal – one on June 16 in Fairhaven, MA and another on June 22 in Cape May. The comment period expired June 27.
Industry support
Rule or no rule, previous research on turtle chains was solid enough to convince many scallopers to simply use the gear even without regulatory action.
“Voluntary compliance by itself appears to be having positive results,” said FSF attorney David Frulla. “We’re not backing off of this one. We continue to support the implementation of a formal rule.”
Ron Smolowitz, a gear engineer who also represents the FSF, was involved in preliminary chain mat trials in 2002 and an experimental fishery that ran from July 2003 to October 2004.
Under the experiment, 12 different vessels fished with one conventional dredge and one dredge modified with turtle chains. Combined, they completed 22 trips covering 277 fishing days and 3,248 tows. During the entire experiment, there were eight turtle interactions, all of them in the unmodified dredge.
“There’s certainly significant benefit to having the chain,” said Smolowitz.
Bill DuPaul of the Virginia Sea Grant Marine Advisory Program at the Virginia Institute of Marine Science also took part in the research.
“I believe that our report on the initial turtle chain study was pretty conclusive in showing that we can keep the turtles out of the dredge and off the deck of the scallop vessel,” he said.
The gear alteration involves a modified rock chain arrangement constructed with lighter but stronger chain. The dredge is rigged with a chain mat configuration consisting of evenly spaced tickler chains hung on the horizontal and up-and-down vertical chains hung forward of the sweep between the cutting bar and the sweep.
Oceana
The environmental group Oceana is opposed to NMFS’s proposal to implement the chains. Instead, the group is pushing for seasonal area closures in the Mid-Atlantic during times when the turtles – mostly loggerheads – are present.
Oceana Campaign Director David Allison said that even though the chains would keep turtles “off the decks of boats,” the animals could still collide with the chain mats and potentially be injured or killed,
The proposed rule “sweeps the problem under the rug,” he said.
Oceana supports allowing scallopers to fish in “other areas” during Mid-Atlantic closures. It also wants to see dredge-mounted underwater cameras plus observers on boats during any turtle chain research trips.
Underwater camera work is already underway, and observers monitored a majority of the tows during the 2003-2004 experiment.
Impact to turtles
Clearly anticipating some opposition to the chains, NMFS addressed potential turtle impact issues in the proposed rule.
“With the modified gear, the sea turtles may still be hit by the leading edge of the frame and cutting bar and would likely be forced down to the sea floor rather than swept into the dredge bag … and would probably fare just as poorly as those that interact with the unmodified dredge,” said NMFS.
However, the agency added that off-bottom collisions would be unlikely to harm the turtles.
“NMFS assumes that any turtle hitting the chain mat in the water column would not be hit with great force and would likely be able to swim away without serious injury,” said the agency.
As for injuries that might occur during bottom contact, Smolowitz said, “That’s pure speculation.”
But maybe not for long.
“We have two research projects out there that are going to examine those issues,” he said.
Plastic turtle “models”
One project was taking place June 18-24 as Commercial Fisheries News was going to press.
Working out of Panama City, FL from the platform of a southern shrimp boat, Smolowitz and DuPaul were planning to conduct a variety of at-sea trials with NMFS divers. Vessel owner Jimmy Gutowski, who also works at Viking Village Dock in Barnegat Light, NJ, was selected to be the project’s industry observer.
The purpose of the work is to document what happens to turtles when they encounter a 13' traditional dredge – both with and without turtle chains – vs. a new 13' experimental dredge designed by Smolowitz, which also will be tested with and without turtle chains.
Smolowitz’s dredge involves a radical design-change to prevent turtles from being snagged on the dredge and also let them “pop out before the cutting bar” if by chance they get caught under the bale.
The research team will be using plastic turtles, complete with appendages, which can be equipped with weights to adjust buoyancy. The turtle dummies will be placed in the path of the dredge by NMFS divers, who will then record what happens to them on camera. The dredge itself will be equipped with cameras too.
“I think it’s a good thing that industry will be watching this,” said Gutowski, who flew down to Panama City on June 17 to ensure that the dredge was hung right and to watch “the comings and goings.”
The plastic turtles obviously won’t behave entirely like real turtles, but the experiment will give the research team an idea of what happens to objects of that size and weight when they encounter dredges and turtle chains.
After studying the injuries of turtles that have actually come up in scallop gear, Smolowitz said, “My hypothesis is that very few turtles get under the dredges.”
Gutowski thinks this is true as well.
“I’m not sure they’re catching any of these turtles on the bottom,” he said. “While I’m down there (in Florida), I want to make the suggestion that they float some of these (turtle models) in the water column.”
Whatever the outcome, Gutowski was firm about one point. The whole project was an experiment and shouldn’t be viewed as more than that.
“Whatever this study comes up with doesn’t mean this is necessarily what happens in the field,” he said.
Baiting turtles
Besides the Florida research, Smolowitz will be continuing the work he began last year with two Barnegat Light scallopers – the Kathy Ann, of which Gutowski is a partner, and the Karen L.
Smolowitz and the boat crews mounted cameras on dredges to try to document turtle interactions.
And they set baited traps – milk crates filled with scallop viscera – to see if turtles were being attracted to scallop boats during shucking operations for a free lunch. The traps were also camera-monitored.
The project got a late start because of a delay in funding and then ran into a pivotal problem. No turtles.
“It’s not like turtles are tiled across the top of the ocean,” said Gutowski. “There just weren’t any turtles around.”
Smolowitz, too, agreed that the lack of turtles impeded the research.
“It’s like finding a needle in a haystack. We’ve got to put in a lot of hours,” he said.
The partners will resume this work as soon as late June – depending on when funding, once again from NMFS, comes through. At press time, the Barnegat Light fleet was still sorting out which vessels would participate in the work.
“This is a good cooperative project with direct funding from NMFS and donated vessel time and manpower from industry,” said Smolowitz. “The industry is really putting a lot into this.”
Possible improvements
The Barnegat Light boats did last year’s research outside of their scallop days-at-sea, so they were only allowed to possess 400 pounds of scallops at a time.
That requirement was a serious hindrance to the project because vessels needed to pack up, steam home, and offload each day in order to legally possess 400 pounds – scallops that helped offset fuel costs and partially compensate the crew.
This year, Smolowitz said the research team is seeking a waiver so that boats can stay at sea for three days and come in with 1,200 pounds, which would reduce the loss of valuable on-bottom research time.
“It would really help to be on site the whole time,” said Gutowski. “That way we could stay in one spot and bait all night. And we could go where the boats are fishing,” he said, which might help in locating turtles.
Keeping at it
Between voluntary use of turtle chains, past research projects, ongoing underwater camera work, baiting studies, and the new experimental dredge design, scallopers and researchers are pulling out all the stops to greatly reduce and avoid turtle interactions.
“We’re as on-top of this as we can be,” said David Frulla.
And that’s why he and others express frustration over continued opposition by Oceana to their efforts.
“It’s bizarre that the industry’s being attacked for being proactive,” he said. “That bothers me.”
Gutowski held the same position.
“Whenever a challenge arises, we’re there to meet it and not run away from it. That should be applauded,” he said. “It’s really too bad that we always have to be on the defensive even when we’re doing good things.”
Janice M. Plante
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