Performance Evaluation of Turtle Excluder Device off Dhamra in Bay of Bengal

Abstract

Turtles are endangered and protected species under
the Indian Wildlife Protection Act 1972. A number
of non-target resources, such as sea turtles, are
caught during trawling. This study reports the field
trials conducted using TED-installed fish trawls in
Odisha waters to evaluate the efficacy of TED. The
incidence of sea turtles was one for every 15 hauls
and the turtle excluder device (CIFT-TED) showed
100% exclusion for the sea turtle entering the trawl
system. The exclusion rates were 2.5% for the total
catch and 2.7% for the shrimp. Twenty eight species
of finfish were encountered during the trials of
which 17 were represented in the excluded portion
of the catch.