FREE ESSAY ON TEDS

TEDS

T.E.D.s
Since 1989 all shrimp nets have had to have TEDS or Turtle Excluder Devices
sewn into them. A TED is a metal grate that is sewn in the body of a net so when a
turtle
hits it, it is launched out the top of the net, supposedly returning it to the wild. In
my
opinion TEDS are a good thought but they have done nothing but hurt the fishing
industry by producing less catch.
Since the introduction of TEDS in 1989 there has been a 10% decline in the
number of shrimp caught each year. This is because when trash is caught it becomes
entangled in the TED holding it open and releasing the catch. 
These TEDS don't come free to anyone. A basic TED cost two hundred dollars
and each boat has about eight nets so that means sixteen hundred dollars. With the lose
of production and price of the TEDS many fleets have gone bankrupt. The fleet in Texas
alone has dropped from 5,200 boats to about 3,500 today. As more and more of these
boats are filing bankruptcy the burden of helping the families who run these boats is
being put on the tax payers.
Besides the cost of the TEDS they are also a danger to the crew. The average
TED is four foot by 2 1/2 feet with an average weight of 40 pounds. A boat will have
four of these on deck so there is a danger of being hit by one. If someone was to get
hit
and killed by one the money to help the family would once again come from the boats
account. The settlement could set a boat in bankruptcy once again putting a family on
welfare.
The argument of the opposition is that there were a lot of turtles being caught
before the introduction of TEDS. If you talked to anyone was a shrimping before TEDS
were introduced they will tell you that they have never seen one or have only caught one
in thirty years of shrimping. My father has been shrimping for over thirty years and he
says that he has never even seen one of them.
TEDS are also ineffective at excluding the turtles. On average when a turtle hits
the TED he is shot out the net with no problem. If the turtle is small its head will
become entangled in the TED causing it to drowned. There is a large number of small
turtles in the Gulf so you can bet if any are going into the TED they are being drowned
by
it.
There is one other problem with saying that shrimper are killing off the turtle
population. Turtles hatch on land and with the increasing beach development the turtles
are losing there natural habitat causing the fall in the turtle population. So if anyone
is
going to put the blame on the shrimpers they need also to look at the other local causes
of the turtle population decline: industralizing, dumping garbage, and land runoff.
In conclusion I believe the shrimping community is being given all the blame for
the decline in the population of turtles and also ever other marine animal. Why would a
shrimper want to tear up the ocean if that is where he makes his living.
Works Cited
1. The United States: Emptier Nets: Economists. Vol:348, Aug 22, 1998
Texas: Norton, 1998
2. http;//sapphire.com/UNCAT/uncat19.html. 1/1/2000
3. personal interview: Chris Johnson; Paul Rogers