Encouraging International Collaborations by Transferring Research Capacities and Developing the TED Ability to Reduce Bycatch.

Tropical shrimp trawling is responsible for large volumes of bycatch worldwide. The widespread use of TEDs (Turtle Excluder Device) in Central and South America has been effective at reducing the capture of marine turtles and other mega fauna. The TED is however ineffective at reducing bycatch of smaller non-target species.   Until 2010 French Guiana, which is located on the northern east coast of South America, had shrimping fleets that where not obligated to use TEDs.   In 2007 the French Guiana Regional Fisheries Committee, who represents the interests of the local shrimping fleets, and the WWF developed a collaborative research project with technical support from NOAA and IFREMER (French Research Institute for the Exploitation of the Sea). This collaboration has led to the conception and successful implementation in 2010 of the TTED (Trash and Turtle Excluder Device) system that has reduced bycatch by 25 to 40% locally.  The collaborative approach initiated between the WWF and a professional fisheries organization has drawn positive attention abroad, and other nations are now seeking to assess the efficiency of the TTED.   Through the VIMS fellowship program  “Collaborative Research in Fisheries Science” these countries will have this opportunity and will also receive the technical capacity to experiment with trawling gear therefore becoming capable of contributing to further evolutions in bycatch reduction technologies, as was the case in French Guiana.