doi:10.7289/V5416V1R

NOAA technical memorandum NMFS-SEFSC ; 666

"The skimmer trawl fishery in the northern Gulf of Mexico targets inshore areas to harvest penaeid shrimp (Family Penaeidae). The primary species targeted are brown shrimp, Farfantepenaeus aztecus, from May through July, and white shrimp, Litopenaeus setiferus, from August through December. Skimmer trawls have been documented in Louisiana, Alabama, and Mississippi as well as North Carolina. In 2013, Louisiana sold 3,236 resident ($25 per net) and 76 non-resident ($100 per net) commercial skimmer net licenses. Skimmer trawls are unique in that the nets are attached to rigid frames on the vessel instead of using conventional otter trawl doors to open the net. This allows the vessel operator to retrieve the cod ends while the nets are still actively fishing. Butterfly nets are very similar in concept to skimmer trawls, but a butterfly net has a rigid bottom frame that forms a square completely encircling the net opening. Numerous studies in the past have examined various aspects of the skimmer trawl fishery in the southeastern U.S. providing a background of information (Hines et al., 1993; Coale et al., 1994; Hein and Meier, 1995; Scott-Denton et al., 2007; Price and Gearhart, 2011; Pulver et al., 2012; Pulver et al. 2014)"--Executive summary. [doi:10.7289/V5416V1R (http://dx.doi.org/10.7289/V5416V1R)]

National Marine Fisheries Service (NMFS)