GRANT
NUMBER:
NA67FD0032
NMFS NUMBER:
95-SER-011
REPORT
TITLE:
Bycatch of Atlantic and Shortnose Sturgeons in the South
Carolina Shad Fishery
AUTHOR:
Collins,
Mark R. and Smith, Theodore I.J.
PUBLISH
DATE:
September 1996
AVAILABLE
FROM: National
Marine Fisheries Service, 9721 Executive Center Drive,
North, St. Petersburg, FL 33702. PHONE: (813) 570-5324
ABSTRACT

Information
on incidental capture of shortnose sturgeons, Acispenser
brevirostrum, and Atlantic sturgeons, A. oxyrhynchus,
in commercial fisheries was derived from four studies
conducted in South Carolina and Georgia. In a Georgia
study, 97 of 1,534 tagged juvenile Atlantic sturgeons
and 12 of 551 tagged shortnose sturgeons were reported
recaptured in commercial nets. Gill net fisheries
for American shad, Alosa sapidissima, accounted
for 52% of Atlantic sturgeons and 83% of shortnose sturgeons
recaptured, and the trawl fishery for shrimp, Penaeus
spp., was responsible for 39% of Atlantic sturgeon
and 8% of shortnose sturgeon recaptured. In the
other three studies, catch-per-unit-effort estimates for
the American shad gill net fishery varied from 0.003 to
0.137 sturgeons per 91.4 m of gill net per hour.
Most Atlantic sturgeons were less than 150 cm in total
length (juveniles), and most shortnose sturgeons exceeded
55 cm in total length (mature or nearly so). The
ration of shortnose to Atlantic sturgeons in the shad
fishery bycatch increased with inland distance form the
ocean. In a South Carolina study, 16% of 51 sturgeons
captured incidentally in gill nets died outright and another
20% were injured.