Turtle Excluder Device Compliance Data in Southeast Shrimp Fishery

The April 18, 2014, Biological Opinion requires NOAA Fisheries Gear Monitoring Team to ensure compliance with Turtle Excluder Device (TED) regulations at a level that keeps overall average sea turtle catch rates (i.e., sea turtles that do not escape via the TED and are captured) in the shrimp otter trawl fleet at or below 12%. NOAA’s Office of Law Enforcement (OLE) and Southeast Fisheries Science Center Mississippi Laboratory, inspect TEDs in otter trawls on shrimp vessels in the U.S. Atlantic and Gulf of Mexico for their compliance with TED regulations. The Mississippi Laboratories, with assistance from NOAA Fisheries Southeast Regional Office’s Protected Resources Division, analyzes the TED inspection data to estimate sea turtle capture rates and TED effectiveness.

To provide information on fishermen compliance with Turtle Excluder Device (TED) regulations in the Southeast Region shrimp fishery as required by Biological Opinions.

Data summaries can be viewed at: http://sero.nmfs.noaa.gov/protected_resources/sea_turtle_protection_and_shrimp_fisheries/index.html

Some information contained within the data are confidential and protected under FOIA Exemption 4: Trade Secrets, Commercial or Financial Information, see 5 U.S.C. 552(b)(4). These data are released after aggregation, to protect confidentiality.

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Datasheets were checked in the field after sampling and data were checked after entry into the database. The principal investigators review the data for content to ensure the relevance/accuracy of data collected.

Data resides on Networked Attached Storage (NAS) environment. Security patches/updates are immediately applied to the host environment. Data is stripped/mirrored using RAID 50 technology to protect data from disk failure. Nightly backups are preformed and files are written to magnetic tape and stored in an onsite / offsite location.

Field data are recorded onto datasheets. Datasheets were checked in the field after sampling and data were checked after entry into the database. The principal investigators review the data for content to ensure the relevance/accuracy of data collected.