La. shrimp boats to get electronic logbooks

As part of a red snapper rebuilding effort, federal regulators plan to install electronic logbooks on about 80 Louisiana shrimp vessels that ply the Gulf of Mexico to monitor the movements of fishermen.

In all, the National Marine Fisheries Service plans to put the Global Positioning System devices on 250 randomly selected boats from the Gulf states. Conservationists hope the on-board GPS equipment will shed light on how much of an effect shrimpers have on depleted red snapper stocks.

Commercial fishermen hope the devices will prove that the shrimp industry is not as harmful to red snapper as some scientists believe. And federal managers say the new equipment will answer questions about how often shrimp boats trawl in areas where red snapper breed.

Under a preliminary plan to rejuvenate the Gulf’s ailing red snapper population, fisheries managers are suggesting that shrimp “bycatch” of red snapper be reduced by more than 70 percent from about five years ago. Data collected from 2005 show that the accidental catch has been reduced by about 60 percent, so regulators could resort to closing part of the shrimp season to meet the proposed target.

“The closures have consequences for the shrimp industry. It negatively impacts them, but at least the shrimp fisherman has options now,” said Benny Gallaway, president of LGL Ecological Research Associates, the Texas company that developed the on-board devices. “For the first time in a long time, the agency and the fishery is on the same page.”

But by using the GPS data from the devices, scientists may be able to determine whether the shrimp boats are trawling in particular areas of the Gulf where red snapper tend to concentrate. Then closures could be more specifically targeted to certain zones, rather than shutting down the Gulf to the entire fleet.

The devices will provide GPS snapshots of a shrimp boat’s location at 10-minute intervals. Using this data, fisheries scientists can determine whether the boat is motoring to a shrimp spot or slowing down, indicating it has dropped its nets and is trawling the seas for shrimp.

Before the program, scientists relied on word-of-mouth information from shrimpers and randomly placed observers on shrimp boats to gather information.

Data from a pilot study using the electronic devices showed that federal regulators were overestimating shrimp fishing in areas where red snapper tend to concentrate.

“We were managing on guesswork, and now we can manage on actual data,” said Wilma Anderson, executive director of the Texas Shrimp Association who has worked with the state’s shrimpers on the monitoring program.

“I hope that by putting these on, the shrimp industry will feel more comfortable with the numbers,” said Roy Crabtree, regional administrator for the National Marine Fisheries Service. “It’s always easier to make decisions if the people you’re regulating believe your information is correct.”