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FRG Research Examines Sea Turtles, Gill Nets

 

Contact: Robin Wienke, 919/515-1092, robin_wienke@ncsu.edu

Posted Wednesday, August 5, 2009

This month, University of North Carolina Wilmington researcher Amanda Southwood will lead a study to examine interactions between green sea turtles and the fall flounder gill net fishery in Core, Back and Pamlico Sounds.

With funding from the Fishery Resource Grant Program (FRG), Southwood will work with commercial fisherman Eddie Willis and Joanne Braun McNeill of the National Oceanic and Atmospheric Administration’s National Marine Fisheries Service (NMFS) to tag and track turtles using satellite transmitters.

“This will add to the knowledge base of sea turtle distribution in those areas,” says Blake Price, N.C. Division of Marine Fisheries fisheries biologist.

Even very short net interactions cause high levels of physiological stress for turtles, according to results from Southwood’s previous FRG research. The new research will identify hot spots with high levels of sea turtle/gill net interactions and potential ways to avoid them.

Pinpointing hot spots may allow fisheries managers to restrict gear in or close those areas while keeping the rest of the fishery open, notes Sara Mirabilio, a North Carolina Sea Grant fisheries specialist.

Stricter limits were placed on parts of the fishery including Core Sound, Back Sound and waters around Hammocks Beach State Park earlier in July, prompted by NMFS observer reports of incidental sea turtle captures in Core Sound. These sea turtle “takes” are illegal under the Endangered Species Act (ESA) and DMF acted quickly to implement gear restrictions that would protect sea turtles and prevent federal closure of the flounder gill net fishery.

In Pamlico Sound, shallow-water flounder gill nets have been managed since 2000 under a Section 10 ESA permit. The permit allows the fishery to remain open with a limited number of sea turtle takes, under the conditions that fishermen file weekly reports and carry observers on their boats. Closure of the fishery is mandatory once the take limit is reached.

Southwood’s project “may help us to expand the Section 10 coverage we now have in Pamlico Sound,” says David Taylor, a fisheries manager for DMF.

Expanding permits to Core and Back sounds could limit sea turtle takes and keep open flounder gill net fisheries that would otherwise be closed, Mirabilio explains.

The project also builds on past FRG sea turtle research by Andy Read and Catherine McLellan of the Duke University Marine Lab. FRG is funded by the N.C. General Assembly and administered by North Carolina Sea Grant. For more information, visit www.ncseagrant.org and click on “Research.”

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