When researchers head out this summer and fall to test gear to reduce bycatch in shrimp trawls, they will do so with an important partner.

Area fishermen will be offering up their time and use of their private trawlers to help state researchers gather information on the effectiveness of various gears in reducing bycatch of finfish in trawl nets.

Plans are to test three gear options in each the summer and fall shrimp fishery; a task that will involve the use of three trawls each season for about three weeks each.

“We’ve budgeted 15 days for each vessel with a goal of 30 tows for each one of the gears,” said Kevin Brown, gear development biologist with the N.C. Division of Marine Fisheries.

Read the full story at The Daily News >>

Read more about Atlantic shrimp >>