June 19, 2026 — NOAA’s Gear Monitoring Team has made significant progress improving and maintaining turtle excluder device compliance in the Gulf of America shrimp fishery. TEDs allow shrimp to pass through the bars to the end of the net. This allows fishers to maintain catch levels, while larger marine animals like sea turtles get “excluded” from the net.
Our gear experts cover the entire Gulf—from Key West, Florida to Brownsville, Texas. Through their efforts conducting outreach, education, and enforcement training within fishing communities, TED compliance rates in the Gulf shrimp fishery now exceed 90 percent
Refresher for Law Enforcement
The team provides training to state and federal enforcement agencies to improve understanding of TED requirements and promote consistency in enforcement. This year we provided refresher training to:
- Florida Fish and Wildlife Conservation Commission officers and the U.S. Coast Guard near Marco Island, Florida
- Texas Parks and Wildlife and U.S. Coast Guard in South Texas
- Louisiana Department of Wildlife and Fisheries officers
NOAA’s Office of Law Enforcement coordinated and participated in these training sessions with our team and state law enforcement partners. This allowed officers to gain proficiency in TED requirements and gain on the water experience measuring the devices.
“We conducted a classroom portion of the training to review regulations and provide hands-on practice,” said Jason Letort, gear specialist and Gear Monitoring Team lead. “This was followed by a day of offshore patrols several miles west of Marco Island and Naples, Florida, where we boarded seven vessels and checked TED compliance on all of them. This allowed the officers to gain real experience checking TEDs on the back deck of a shrimp boat, which they can’t get in a classroom.”