Quote:
Originally Posted by capt coonassty
BRD's
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The thing about "Bycatch reduction devices" is that they are also inevitably
catch reduction devices.
BRDs reduce the intented catch as well as the bycatch, thus driving up operational and fuel costs for the fishers and thus product costs for the customers.
Adding more burdens to commercial (or recreational) fishermen is only warranted if there is solid data showing that the ongoing resource impacts of not adding the burdens is significant enough to justify the added burdens. Even without TEDs, turtle catch rates in the Gulf are very low, under 1 turtle every 300 hours of trawling.