A diver with the National Marine Fisheries Service releases dye into a prototype of a by-catch reduction device, or BRD. It's designed to reduce the amount of fish caught in shrimp trawls. The ratio of fish to shrimp often approaches 7-to-1.

Day Four: Wednesday, March 27, 1996 Managers maneuver at cliff's edge Rough weather, a long night, a bad catch Illegal fishing thrives in vast Gulf Shrimpers snap over fish saver A fallen captain fights for his pride Scientists confounded by nature, politics

Shrimpers snap
over fish saver

By John McQuaid,
Staff writer

ABOARD THE
R.V. CARETTA

In a classic Gulf of Mexico silhouette, a boat plies choppy waters off the coast in a stiff breeze, outriggers deployed, towing its shrimp trawls along the sea bottom.
  But a motorized inflatable raft trailing behind indicates that this is no ordinary shrimping scene. The raft carries two teams of wet-suited divers, video cameras and other equipment.
  When the right moment comes, each pair dives down to the nets, grabs hold of the mesh and rides. One diver injects a stream of blue dye into an unusual frame of mesh and aluminum in the net, while the other videotapes the twisting blue flow.
  They are government scientists testing ‘‘by-catch reduction devices’’ off the Florida panhandle.
  Scientists think the BRD is the magic bullet that will save the red snapper population. Shrimpers, who would have to use it, see it as another government regulation to make their jobs and lives more difficult.
  From about 6 months to 2 years of age, the 1- to 2-inch-long snappers gather in clumps on the muddy floor of the Gulf within a few miles of shore — prime shrimping territory. The National Marine Fisheries Service, which developed the BRD, says shrimp trawls kill them by the millions. They, along with the other unwanted fish called ‘‘by-catch,’’ are thrown away.
  In theory, BRDs installed in thousands of shrimp trawls would allow many young snappers to escape and help rebuild the population.
  With direct overfishing of snapper already tightly controlled, by-catch has become the most urgent fishery management problem in the Gulf. Fisheries Service scientist Phil Goodyear says reducing the snapper by-catch by 50 percent is the only way to bring the population back from the brink of collapse.
  But like the other efforts the government has made on the snapper’s behalf, the by-catch reduction device is at the center of a protracted, bitter political fight between shrimpers, scientists, managers and members of Congress. The battle illustrates not only the political problems so common in fishery management, but also how difficult it is to devise technical solutions.
  The Fisheries Service has spent $7.4 million on the problem over the past three years, more than the value of a year’s snapper catch. They believe they have several devices that will work. But politically they are far from getting them installed.
  The shrimping industry, which has more boats and makes more money than any other fishery in the Gulf, lost a long and bitter fight in the 1980s when the government required boats to pull turtle excluder devices to save endangered sea turtles. Shrimpers harbor bitter resentment of the federal government because of TEDs, which allow shrimp to escape the trawls along with the turtles, cost money and are generally a hassle.
  Shrimpers see by-catch reduction devices as TEDs all over again. Managers are well aware of the hostility. A few years ago, BRDs were called fish excluder devices, but officials decided the acronym ‘‘FED’’ sent the wrong message.
  ‘‘They’re trying to put us out of business with this, that’s clear,’’ said Jacko Darda, a Lafitte offshore shrimper.
  Scientists and fish managers are firmly behind the devices, but the shrimping industry has powerful friends in Congress. Sen. John Breaux, D-La., and Rep. Billy Tauzin, R-Chackbay, have fought BRDs at every turn and won almost every time.
  In 1990 they postponed any BRD program for four years so more study could be done. That set back the recovery of the snapper population by years, Goodyear said.
  But Tauzin says the Fisheries Service has been inflexible. Instead of examining alternatives during the postponement, he said, managers refined the BRD and tried to build support for it.
  Because the agency is wedded to the idea of BRDs, Tauzin says, it has exaggerated shrimping’s harm to snappers.
  ‘‘It is exactly the same as a TED,’’ Tauzin said. ‘‘It is going to become a nightmare — an oppressive, obsessive federal regulatory intrusion into the lives of fishermen in the Gulf. There are better ways to deal with this.’’
  He suggests that instead of throwing by-catch overboard, the industry ought to work with managers to find a use for it. But scientists say that won’t work. At least dead fish thrown overboard are eaten by other fish and absorbed back into the ecosystem. If the by-catch were removed, they say, the ecological consequences could be disastrous.
  During the postponement, the Gulf of Mexico Fishery Management Council helped form a study group of scientists and shrimpers. They spent two years taking the temperature of the shrimping community, doing cooperative tests of BRDs and trying to build a consensus for them.
  But the effort has had only a tiny ripple effect among the thousands of shrimpers who might be affected.
  Tauzin failed last year to put off the BRD program again. But the council, which also tends to favor the shrimping industry, has yet to move forward with the plan.
  If the science and politics are problematic, the technical problems may be an even bigger challenge.
  Reef fish like underwater structures, so they tend to swim along inside the net even when there’s an escape hatch. Scientists have devised several different BRDs that they say allow snappers to escape by letting them ride a water flow out through the hole, but some people are skeptical.
  Said Greg Faulkner, a Milton netmaker who has worked independently to develop workable TEDs and BRDs, ‘‘It’s like trying to develop a pit bull that won’t bite."