Summary
The requirement, in 2003, that trawl vessels fishing for ocean shrimp use bycatch reduction devices (BRDs) has reduced fish bycatch by between 66% and 88% from historical (pre-BRD) levels. Data collected from a trawl experiment testing a rigid-grate BRD with 19-mm bar spacing suggest that bycatch in the ocean shrimp fishery can be reduced further, perhaps below 5% of total catch.