Diamondback Terrapin Mortality in the American Eel Pot Fishery and Evaluation of a Bycatch Reduction Device
نویسنده
چکیده
The effect of commercial fisheries on nontarget species is a burgeoning issue for both fishery managers and estuarine biologists. We documented diamondback terrapin (Malaclemys terrapin) bycatch in cloth-funnel eel pots used in a Maryland (United States) commercial American eel (Anguilla rostrata) fishery. Between 1992 and 2001, we obtained 40 male and 9 female terrapin captures and 1 male terrapin recapture from commercial eel pots. To quantify terrapin catch rates and evaluate a potential solution to terrapin bycatch in eel pots, we conducted two experiments that tested the effects of a novel eel pot bycatch reduction device on terrapin bycatch and eel harvest. We determined low terrapin bycatch rates (0.000–0.008 terrapins pot d) in pots with small entrance funnels and high terrapin capture rates (0.458 terrapins pot d) in pots with large entrance funnels. The BRD eliminated terrapin bycatch and had no effect on eel catch making it an economically-viable solution for terrapin mortality in eel pots. We demonstrated that terrapin bycatch can be a problem in the American eel pot fishery and that our bycatch reduction device is a simple and cost-effective solution to this problem.
منابع مشابه
The Impact of Crab Pot Fisheries on Terrapin (Malaclemys terrapin) Populations: Where Are We and Where Do We Need to Go?
In the Atlantic and Gulf states, the crab pot fishery overlaps with much of the habitat of the diamondback terrapin, Malaclemys terrapin. The exclusively estuarine terrapin can be found throughout the coastal bays and creeks of the eastern and Gulf coasts of the United States. Terrapin populations can incur considerable mortality of males and juveniles when crab pots are fished in terrapin habi...
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