Bycatch Reduction in the Gulf of Mexico and South Atlantic Shrimp Fleet

During the 1960s and 1970s, a significant groundfish fishery existed in the Gulf of Mexico. There were about 50 vessels in the fishery which targeted a groundfish complex that consisted of over 170 species, dominant of which were croaker, spot, seatrout, cutlassfish, sea catfish, porgies, perch, drums, hake, and butterfish. The primary directed fishery was for the pet food, harvesting 50,000 tons, and for human consumption, harvesting approximately 13,000 tons annually. However, during the latter part of the 1970s the shrimp trawling fleet had been established and began to grow considerably. Approximately 310,000 tons of groundfish were taken by the shrimp fleet and discarded. The average ratio of weight of finfish to shrimp in the shrimp trawl fishery during the 1970s was about 10:1. One of the profound consequences of this high bycatch rate was that the GulfÕs groundfish fishery was virtually eliminated.