Trawls

A trawl is a large net that is pulled through the water column or along the seabed. This fishing gear is typically used to catch fish or shrimp. Catching unwanted species is a problem for trawlers because it is a very indiscriminant form of fishing. Trawling can occur with one boat pulling a net or cooperatively by two boats, each pulling an end of a much larger trawl net.

Sea turtles are prone to drowning in trawl nets when they swim into a trawl net and are unable to escape to surface for breath. Turtle Excluder Devices (TEDs) have been implemented in shrimp trawl nets in order to allow turtles to pass out of the net while smaller targeted species of fish and shrimp move into a portion of the nets that does not allow them to escape. The mandated use of these devices has greatly reduced the death of sea turtles in shrimp trawl fisheries but there are several other trawl fisheries not currently required to use TEDs.