CITY OF PLUS-HEAD – Local skimmer trawl fishermen and others have several opportunities to learn about installing turtle exclusion devices, or TEDs, on their trawls.

The National Marine Fisheries Service of the National Oceanic and Atmospheric Administration offers several webinars to help skimmer trawl fishermen set up the TED. Gear Specialists from the NMFS Southeast Fisheries Science Center Gear Monitoring Team will host Q&A webinars and virtual workshops summarizing the upcoming TED Skimmer Trawl requirements and assist participants to obtain program and compliance information.

These webinars and workshops will take place at 10 a.m. on select Tuesdays and Fridays. The case-sensitive password for all of these webinars is “noaa”. An audio conference call will also be available during webinar times at 415-527-5035. The event number for each webinar is the access code for each audio conference.

Each webinar will be recorded.

The schedule for these webinars is as follows:

The webinars and workshops will summarize the upcoming TED requirements that are expected to take effect on Sunday August 1 for skimmer trawlers 40 feet or more in length.

Tuesday’s webinars will provide a comprehensive summary of the new regulations, equipment requirements and research findings. Question-and-answer sessions will be organized at the end of each webinar.

Friday’s virtual workshops will also summarize regulations and equipment requirements, but will include longer question-and-answer sessions focusing on the technical aspects of TED construction, installation and handling. During these workshops, TED models will be available to help gear specialists answer questions and illustrate construction and measurement details.