Study on Juvenile and Trash Excluder Devices (JTEDs) in the Philippines

Abstract

Trawling is a highly efficient fishing method for catching shrimp and is used in many regions. The Southeast Asian region is in the tropical zone and is a multi species area and the fishermen, who operate shrimp trawls, do not want to lose their profit. Thus, they want to catch both fish and shrimp. It has been recognized for sometime that operating shrimp trawls in shallow coastal waters has an adverse effect upon on this area and more directly catches the juveniles of commercial and immature fish. To avoid the rapid decrease of fish stock, many types of BRDs (Bycatch Reduction Devices) have been developed to solve this problem. After a successful collaborative project with SEAFDEC member countries on Turtle Excluder Devices (TEDs) in 1997 in line with the principle of responsible fishing, SEAFDEC/TD (Southeast Asian Fisheries Development Center/Training Department), Thailand, has continued to promote responsible fishing through selective devices namely the JTED (Juvenile and Trash Excluder Device) in Thailand, Brunei Darussalam, Vietnam, Malaysia and Indonesia. SEAFDEC/TD has carried out a series of experiments to release the juveniles, small fish and trash fish by conducting experiments using JTEDs installed in shrimp trawl nets. The first experiments were in the Gulf of Thailand using the rectangular shaped window and semi-curved JTEDs. The second series of experiments were conducted in the waters off the coast of Maura Town, Brunei Darussalam with a JTED that had been developed to be a rigid sorting grid JTED, the third series of experiments were carried out off Cat Ba Island in Hai Phong Province, Vietnam. These were followed by a fourth series of experiments conducted in the waters off the coast of Alor Setar, Kedah State of Malaysia. From the four series of experiments it was found that the rigid sorting grid JTED has a better separating performance than the rectangular and semi-curved JTEDs. In May 2002, SEAFDEC/TD organized a Regional Practical Workshop on Selective Fishing Devices associated with the FAO/GEF project to promote selective fishing devices under the responsible fishing technology and practices program. Training and demonstrations were given to the participants from member countries. Indonesia was selected as the first country to continue this project at Sorong in August 2002. The experiments were carried out in the coastal waters off Bintuni Bay, Arafura Sea, Papua, Indonesia. The results show the same as other past experiments. A second series of experiment was conducted in April 28 to May 8, 2003 in Manila bay, the Philippines, in cooperation with BFAR/Philippines.