Show Title: A Reel Fish Story
Producers: Erin Easterling and Linda Kubitz
Time: 27:40
Show begins here: ---(music)---
>>>TODAY ON IMPACT... HELPING FLORIDA'S MARINE ENVIRONMENT AND SEAFOOD INDUSTRY IN THE 90'S.
---(Since all other fisheries are exploited, this is it. If we let this crab go the way of other fisheries, then we're going to have to sell this boat.)---
---(Fisheries Conservation efforts have come to the forefront in the last decade or so, because people have really recognized the importance of fisheries habitat.)--- Animation
>>>THIS IS IMPACT. A WEEKLY LOOK AT ISSUES AND ANSWERS THAT IMPACT OUR LIVES AND THE WORLD AROUND US. PRODUCED BY THE UNIVERSITY OF FLORIDA'S INSTITUTE OF FOOD AND AGRICULTURAL SCIENCES.
>>>WITH STRESS CAUSED BY POLLUTION AND THE DECLINE OF NATURAL RESOURCES, THIS COUNTRY'S MARINE ENVIRONMENT IS DEFINITELY AT RISK. TODAY'S PROGRAM LOOKS AT WAYS OF CONSERVING OUR VITAL MARINE LIFE AND PROTECTING VALUABLE SEAFOOD INDUSTRIES FOR YEARS TO COME. Fade to and from black.
---(water hitting rocks)---
---(ocean and birds squawking)---
---(trap being pulled in)--
---(fish thrashing)---
>>>JOE NOLIN - UF VOLUSIA CO. EXT. AGENT-SEA GRANT: It's really just in the last 10 to 20 years that we finally realized the economic importance of fisheries, and these fisheries all depend on uh, coastal zone habitats that are intact, or that are conserved and taken care of for the future and are not degraded by human influence in the coastal zone.
>>>SPORTS FISHERMEN AND THE SEAFOOD INDUSTRY HAVE SEEN A DECLINE IN MARINE RESOURCES AVAILABLE AND HAVE BEGUN TO REALIZE IF THEY'RE GOING TO CONTINUE CATCHING THE KINDS OF SEAFOOD THEY WANT, IT WILL TAKE EVERYONE WORKING TOGETHER TO PRESERVE THE MARINE ENVIRONMENT FOR THE SPECIES LIVING THERE. ONE OF MANY BUSINESSES DEPENDING ON FUTURE FISH STOCKS IS THE CHARTERED BOAT INDUSTRY.
---(boat motor)---
>>>YOU KNOW IT'S BEEN A GOOD DAY FOR FISHING WHEN A DEEP SEA BOAT RETURNS TO THE DOCK WITH A NICE CATCH. BUT WITH THE FUN AND EXCITEMENT OF DAY LONG FISHING TRIP, COME SOME IMPORTANT LESSONS IN CONSERVATION, ESPECIALLY WHEN DEALING WITH DEEP WATER FISH. THE PROBLEM OCCURS WHEN A FISH IS BROUGHT UP QUICKLY TO THE SURFACE FROM GREAT DEPTHS, OFTEN OF A HUNDRED FEET OR MORE. THIS RAPID CHANGE IN ATMOSPHERIC PRESSURE CAUSES A FISH'S SWIM BLADDER TO FILL WITH GAS AND OVEREXPAND. IF A FISH MEETS THE MINIMUM SIZE RESTRICTIONS OR ISN'T SUBJECT TO A BAG LIMIT SET BY FLORIDA'S FISHERIES MANAGEMENT, IT WOULD BE PART OF THE DAY'S CATCH. BUT WITH AN UNDERSIZED FISH, THAT IS REQUIRED TO BE THROWN BACK, IN THIS CONDITION, THE FISH WOULD TYPICALLY FLOAT ON THE SURFACE, EXPOSED TO PREDATORS AND HAVE VERY LITTLE CHANCE SURVIVING. FOR CUSTOMERS AND CREW ON A CHARTERED BOAT, HAVING TO THROW BACK AN INJURED FISH CAN BE UPSETTING.
>>>CAPT. JOE CAMP -MARIANNE II - PONCE INLET: Our customers were getting really upset because we were throwing undersized fish back over the side, and to see them floating off, and not be able to go and string their fish seems like a big waste to them. Also it was a big waste to us too, so we had to come up with something and see about putting in check, they're survivability, in these fish as they went over the side.
>>>IN RESPONSE TO THIS DILEMMA, RESEARCHERS WITH UNIVERSITY OF FLORIDA'S INSTITUTE OF FOOD AND AGRICULTURAL SCIENCES DESIGNED A TOOL TO HELP GIVE THESE INJURED FISH A FIGHTING CHANCE.
---(The depth's 120. We got another overexpanded fish here, stomach is distended out of it's throat, we're going to introduce our tool into it's gut cavity, you can hear the gas escaping. He's no longer buoyant... Bye bye. There he goes.)--
>>>JOE NOLIN - UF VOLUSIA CO. EXT. AGENT-SEA GRANT: We came up with is a veterinarian's canula, basically, or a tagging applicator fitted through a wooden handle, and it does an excellent job. It's like a really big hypodermic needle and you just insert it into the gut cavity and deflate it very rapidly and release that fish. It's no longer buoyant and the animal can swim back down to depth and survive over the long term.
>>>COMMERCIAL AND SPORTS FISHERMEN HAVE VENTED FISH FOR YEARS, BUT UNTIL NOW, A STANDARD VENTING PROCEDURE HAS NEVER BEEN ESTABLISHED,
>>>CAMP: We were taking fish hooks and whatever we could get to pop the air bladders of these fish so they have half a chance of swimming back down, but most of the time, everybody was sticking a fish hook up their anus and stuff like that, which could really damage the fish and they'd probably die after a while any way, and so even the ones that managed to swim back down to the bottom. But we found this venting tool that we came across there and we seem to have a 90 percent survival rate on these fish now when we have to throw our undersized fish over the side.
>>>ON THE BLUE SEA II OUT OF MIAMI, CAPTAIN AND CREW HAVE STARTED USING THE NEW VENTING TOOL ON A REGULAR BASIS. LIKE MANY OTHER CHARTER BOATS, THEY REALIZE THE FUTURE OF THEIR BUSINESS RELIES ON A HEALTHY FISH POPULATION.
>>>CAPT. DEBBIE ARMSTRONG -BLUE SEA II - MIAMI: Some of the chocolate groupers that we catch out deep, out in 260, 300 feet, they mostly never go back down. And I was really impressed to see that when we vented this grouper and this grouper went straight down with no problem swimming away--I was impressed. It's a tool that we will definitely use on our party boat.
---(As you can see this fish blew up on the way up, you can see his stomach hanging inside his mouth. What I'm going to do is try to release him with this new venting tool. Come behind the pectoral fin here, come about an inch behind it, going to try to get up underneath the scale here with it, just place it in real slow, you can here the air coming out, stomach just went down, just deflated here, drop him in head first and see if he makes it... Good Luck fish, and there he goes.)---
>>>IN AN EFFORT TO ENCOURAGE FISHING CONSERVATION TECHNIQUES SEA GRANT HAS BEEN VISITING MARINAS AND HOLDING WORKSHOP AROUND THE STATE TO EDUCATE FISHERMEN AND BOAT CAPTAINS ABOUT THE NEW VENTING TOOL AND HOW TO USE IT.
>>>DOUG KELLY-FLORIDA SPORTSMAN MAGAZINE: The catch and release mentality of many people these days is shows that many sportsmen, and anglers for that matter, who can keep a fish, can often times release it, such as bone fish or tarpon. So in every sense of the word, knowing how to release a fish uninjured is extremely important.
>>>BOTH FISHERMEN AND RESEARCHERS ARE PLEASED WITH THE RESULTS OF THE VENTING TOOL SO FAR, BUT THE LONG TERM EFFECT THIS PROCEDURE WILL HAVE ON THE FISH IS STILL UNKNOWN.
>>>NOLIN: We realize that this information could change over the long term, and that further research in the future might change some of our ideas now, but that's okay. That's the research process. We felt at this time, in order to address concerns of industry that it was important that we try to solve their problems and help try to maximize survivorship of their mandatory releases now, in order to stay in the forefront, stay ahead of the curves.
>>>IN THE MEANTIME, CAPTAIN'S LIKE DEBBIE ARMSTRONG ARE GLAD TO PUT THE TOOL TO GOOD USE.
>>>ARMSTRONG: I feel deep in my heart that we have abused the ocean, literally taken more than what we should take, and it's time now to start giving back.
>>>BY PROVIDING THE TOOLS AND TECHNIQUES MAKING IT EASIER FOR FISHERMEN TO COMPLY WITH MANAGEMENT GUIDELINES, UNIVERSITY OF FLORIDA AND SEA GRANT ARE DOING THEIR PART TO HELP MAXIMIZE SURVIVORSHIP OF THESE SMALLER FISH, AND MAINTAIN THE POPULATION FOR THE FUTURE. ANOTHER THING FISHERMEN CAN DO TO HELP MARINE LIFE IS TO PROPERLY DISPOSE OF THEIR USED FISHING LINE AND TACKLE.
>>>THIS SEA TURTLE IS FIGHTING FOR ITS LIFE. UNFORTUNATELY, IT'S A BATTLE HE'LL PROBABLY LOSE. HE'S CAUGHT IN FISHING LINE.
>>>SONYA WOOD-UF SEA GRANT EXTENSION: Fishing line is really a killer. It can last up to 600 years in the marine environment before it finally breaks down. Animals either ingest it, they swallow it thinking that it's food, and they're not able to digest that and they usually die, or they get entangled in it, and we've found everything from fish to turtles to whales caught in this line out in the Gulf.
>>>THIS SKULL IS ALL THAT REMAINS OF A SEA TURTLE WHO TANGLED WITH FISHING LINE. DIVERS SAY THE TURTLE BECAME ENTANGLED IN THE LINE AND MOST LIKELY DROWNED. A PELICAN IN A NEARBY MANGROVE MET A SIMILAR FATE. EXPERTS SAY THE BIRD PROBABLY STARVED TO DEATH AFTER GETTING ENTANGLED IN MONOFILAMENT FISHING LINE.
>>>RALPH HEATH-SUNCOAST SEABIRD SANCTUARY: Generally, I would say if a bird flies free with 10-20-or 30 foot of line on him, if he's not caught and captured and that line removed before getting back to the mangrove, it's almost a certainty of death.
>>>UNIVERSITY OF FLORIDA SEA GRANT EXTENSION AGENTS SAY THE PROBLEM OF IMPROPERLY DISCARDED FISHING LINE IS WIDESPREAD AND HUMANS ARE EVEN AT RISK.
>>>WOOD: For scuba divers, they get entangled in it, and often times they have trouble getting back to the surface. I'm a diver and I've gotten caught three times in fishing line and either had to cut my way loose with my own dive knife, or get help from my buddies to get out.
>>>FISHING LINE DOESN'T HAVE TO POSE A THREAT TO MARINE LIFE, SEA BIRDS, OR DIVERS. IF DISPOSED OF PROPERLY, IT CAN EVEN BE RECYCLED INTO USEFUL PRODUCTS.
>>>WOOD: This fishing line is recyclable, and Berkeley, out of Spirit Lake, Iowa, has started a program where they take the fishing line, melt it down into plastics, and use it to form everything from toys to ship to Japan to reels and tackle boxes. So we're very excited about that program as is Berkeley. And Berkeley started out by putting cardboard boxes around the bait and tackle shops encouraging fishermen to recycle.
>>>GRAY'S TACKLE SHOP IN THE FLORIDA PANHANDLE IS ONE OF A NUMBER OF STORES TAKING PART IN THE RECYCLING PROGRAM.
>>>MARGARET GRAY- OWNER-GRAY'S TACKLE SHOP: When I take line off the reels, if I'm by myself I'll say please, would you put this in the box and they'll say what box, and of course that gives them a chance to read what they're doing and realize that there is a place for this line. Also we do it with children. And the children reinforce it with their fathers and mothers when they get home, don't put that in the trash, take it to Gray's, or take it to another tackle store. I think we need to again promote this a little bit more. We're not having enough people come in and bring the line in. The word needs to get out a little more.
>>>AS PART OF THE EFFORT TO GET THE WORD OUT, THE RECYCLING PROGRAM IS ALSO UNDERWAY AT SOME STATE AND NATIONAL PARKS IN FLORIDA. BIG LAGOON STATE PARK IS ONE EXAMPLE.
>>>PHILIP LEESER-PARK MGR.-BIG LAGOON STATE PARK: The park is located on the inter-coastal waterway, and obviously with that one of the biggest recreational draws to the park is fishing. And we do have an awful lot of fishermen and they occasionally you do have a few bad apples in every group and we were finding a lot of the fishing line wrapped up in our mowers and stuff and that was an indication to us that they were just discarding it in the grass or in the water or on the sea grass beds, just anywhere. And we kind of like the program where it gave them a dispenser to dispose of it.
>>>SINCE THE PROGRAM HAS BEEN IN EFFECT, THE PARK COLLECTS BETWEEN 50-100 POUNDS OF FISHING LINE EACH YEAR.
>>>LEESER: You know, it's not just with the fishermen, we're looking at also the boaters. The people that are going out fishing on a boat for the day deposit their line as well, they save it up in a bucket instead of throwing it out in the Gulf they bring it back and dump it out here at the dock before they pull their boat out.
>>>THE PARK HAS EVEN DEVELOPED AN ALTERNATIVE TO THE FISHING LINE RECYCLING BOX.
>>>LEESER: In some particular areas the environment might be a little bit too harsh for a wooden box, and one of the employees here at the lagoon has developed a PVC receptacle. It costs anywhere from about 20 to 25 dollars, and it's to be mounted along a piling, or a light post, using a pipe strap, and it's the deposited here, the fishing line, and down here on the bottom, you place a trash bag on the bottom through here when it's filled up and pull the line out and it's dumped into the trash.
>>>FORT PICKENS, PART OF THE GULF ISLANDS NATIONAL SEASHORE IS THE 4TH MOST VISITED NATIONAL PARK IN THE UNITED STATES. PARK OFFICIALS SAY MORE THAN 5 MILLION PEOPLE COME HERE EACH YEAR. FISHING IS ONE OF THE MANY ATTRACTIONS MAKING DISCARDED FISHING LINE A MAJOR CONCERN.
>>>BECKIE BREEDING-PARK RANGER-GULF ISLANDS NATIONAL SEASHORE: Prior to the boxes, the line was going either in the trash can or in the water, and we do our underwater cleanup dives, we found all the line underwater, and it was entangling a lot of the mullets and a lot of the crustaceans. So we're educating the public that fish on the pier as well as cleaning it up for the marine critters down below. During our busy, peak months of June, July, and August, the box fills up about every two weeks. And that's a lot of fishing line.
>>>THE IDEA OF RECYCLING FISHING LINE IS CATCHING ON WITH LOCAL AND OUT-OF-TOWN FISHERMEN.
>>>DARRELL DWYER-FISHERMAN: I hate to have it cluttered up the pier, and I hate, you know, when you go fishing and wind up, you wind up catching somebody's old fishing line that's been discarded, and of course when it winds up in the landfill fishing line never goes away. It's going to be there forever.
>>>BELINDA GILMER-FISHERMAN: I think the fishing line in the--around the pier that everybody throw away is disgusting, and it's looking so annoying, and I wish they can do something about the recycling.
>>>RAQUEL WILLIAMS-FISHERMAN: The string, it could be laying all over and birds get on it, pick on it and they can get strangled, and they get strung through the water, the fish get caught to them, could kill the fish, it gets washed, you know, on the shore, and people could get hurt also, the feet and get strangled, you know. They get caught underwater and they won't know.
>>>DAN DWYER-FISHERMAN: We change the fishing lines usually once every two seasons and when we do change the lines we like to recycle it, we don't like to throw it on the docks or in the water, cause it's disgusting, it's terrible. Can hurt the fish, it hurts the environment, and it's best to recycle, that's what the whole thing is about.
>>>DURING A 2-HOUR UNDERWATER CLEAN-UP IN THIS AREA, DIVERS COLLECTED 85-HUNDRED FEET OF FISHING LINE. EXPERTS SAY YOU CAN ONLY IMAGINE HOW MUCH MORE LINE IS THROWN AWAY EACH YEAR AND HOW MUCH DAMAGE IT DOES. BUT THEY FEEL WITH RECYCLING PROGRAMS, THERE'S HOPE ATTITUDES TOWARDS OUR ENVIRONMENT CAN BE CHANGED AND RECYCLING WILL BECOME THE ONLY WAY TO DISPOSE OF FISHING LINE... INSTEAD OF JUST A NICE ALTERNATIVE.
Music and Animation, then Fade to and from black.
>>>SPORTS FISHERMEN CAN HELP PRESERVE MARINE RESOURCES BY VENTING UNDERSIZED FISH AND RECYCLING FISHING LINE, BUT WITH COMMERCIAL FISHERMEN, REGULATIONS TO SAVE THE SPECIES THEY'RE TRYING TO CATCH ARE ALSO PUTTING SOME OF THEM OUT OF BUSINESS. ONE NEW FISHING INDUSTRY GETTING ATTENTION IS WORKING TO CREATE THE RULES BEFORE THEY'RE NEEDED.
>>>WHILE MOST OF US ARE STILL ASLEEP, THE CAPTAIN AND CREW OF THE LADY MARY ARE STARTING THEIR DAY. A SEVERAL HOUR JOURNEY OUT TO SEA WILL TAKE THEM NEARLY 10 MILES OF THE COAST OF FT. LAUDERDALE, WHERE THEY WILL SEARCH FOR A DEEP WATER CREATURE, MANY MAY HAVE NEVER SEEN OR HEARD OF... THE GOLDEN CRAB.
>>>RICHARD NIELSEN JR. -GOLDEN CRAB FISHERMAN: A friend of ours was fish trapping, and he kept moving deeper trying to find fish, and he ran into the golden crabs, and my dad did some research on trap design and we built some traps and basically went out there blind and set the traps in the water and found golden crabs.
>>>FRANK LAWLOR, WITH UNIVERSITY OF FLORIDA'S SEA GRANT, HAS BEEN WORKING WITH FISHERMEN CATCHING THIS UNUSUAL CRAB SINCE THEIR DISCOVERY IN THE EARLY 1980'S.
>>>FRANK LAWLOR - SEA GRANT -UF PALM BEACH COUNTY EXT.: The first difference is that most other crustaceans crabs, shrimp, turn red when you cook them, these don't. These don't, they are at depth, they live in very cold water, and they will not turn a color, that's why the moniker or nickname, golden crab.
>>>THE NIELSEN FAMILY GOT INTO THE GOLDEN CRAB BUSINESS FULL TIME WHEN TRAPS THEY CAUGHT FISH WITH, WERE BANNED FROM USE ON DECEMBER 31st, 1992. RICHARD NIELSEN JR. SAYS HAVING THE RIGHT KIND OF BOAT MADE THE TRANSITION TO GOLDEN CRABS POSSIBLE, BUT CATCHING IS HARD WORK.
>>>NIELSEN: You have to overcome Mother Nature, that's number one, there's a lot of days where you have to go out when you'd much rather stay home. You have the Gulf Stream to contend with, and just the depth of water makes it a difficult fishery.
>>>BUOYS AREN'T ALWAYS PRACTICAL FOR USE AS MARKERS IN THE GULF STREAM, SO RICHARD HAS TO LOCATE HIS CRAB TRAPS USING ONLY A LORAN AND DEPTH FINDER. TO RETRIEVE THEM, A LARGE CHAIN WITH HOOKS IS USED TO GRAB THE FIRST TRAP AND BRING IT TO THE SURFACE. ONCE THE TRAP LINE HAS BEEN FOUND, THEY WILL FOLLOW IT 420 FEET TO THE NEXT OF TEN TRAPS.
---(sound of trap popping out of the water)---
>>>WHILE NOT AS GOLDEN AS THE NAME SUGGESTS, THESE BLONDE COLORED CRABS ARE LARGE IN SIZE AND WEIGH AN AVERAGE OF ONE AND A HALF TO THREE POUNDS.
>>>ONCE THE CRABS ARE EMPTIED FROM EACH TRAP, THEY ARE KEPT ALIVE BY PUTTING THEM ON ICE IN THE HULL OF THE BOAT. THE TRAPS ARE THEN REBAITED AND PLACED AT THE BACK OF THE BOAT, WHERE THEY WILL BE RESET AFTER ALL OF THE TRAPS HAVE BEEN CHECKED.
---(crabs being unloaded)--
>>>THE MORNING AFTER THE CRABS ARE BROUGHT TO SHORE, THEY ARE DELIVERED TO THREE RETAIL MARKETS IN THE FT. LAUDERDALE AREA WHERE THEY ARE SOLD LIVE. THEY ARE ALSO TAKEN TO ONE RESTAURANT, WHERE GOLDEN CRAB IS A SPECIALTY.
>>>NIELSEN: They are much larger than a blue crab, they're sweeter than a blue crab, in fact the University of Florida did a taste test on golden crab, snow crab, king crab, and a couple other crabs, and golden crabs ranked right under the Alaskan king crab in taste and texture.
>>>ONCE THEY'VE BEEN DISTRIBUTED LOCALLY, THE REMAINING CRABS ARE SENT TO MARATHON IN THE FLORIDA KEYS WHERE THEY ARE PROCESSED AND FROZEN FOR SHIPMENT TO WHOLESALE OUTLETS AND SUPERMARKETS. SEAFOOD PROCESSOR GARY GRAVES, SAYS THE RECENT DECLINE OF SNOW AND ALASKAN KING CRAB, HAS INCREASED THE DEMAND FOR GOLDEN CRAB AS AN ALTERNATIVE.
>>>GARY GRAVES - PRESIDENT-KEYS FISHERIES INC: Everybody wants some and wants to try it. The success will be when they get repeat--when you get repeat orders, and when the quotas for the snow crab increase in '96 will we still have a good market for the golden crab. So it's going to be--we'll probably a year and a half to two years away from really knowing what our niche is going to be.
>>>LAWLOR: Golden crab are in a very precarious situation because we're at the threshold of looking at a fishery that is going to develop by leaps and bounds over what it is now. If we overexploit it, then we run the risk of not having golden crab around for both the environmental perspective, and for consumers.
>>>IN 1986, RESEARCHERS FROM THE UNIVERSITY OF FLORIDA'S INSTITUTE OF FOOD AND AGRICULTURAL SCIENCES TOOK A MANNED SUBMERSIBLE OVER ONE THOUSAND FEET UNDERWATER TO STUDY TO HABITAT AND LIFE CYCLE OF THE GOLDEN CRAB. THEY FOUND THAT THE CRABS ARE SLOW-GROWING, REACHING MATURITY BETWEEN 5 AND 15 YEARS, SOME RESEARCH INDICATES THE FEMALES MAY ONLY HAVE ONE BROOD OF OFFSPRING PER YEAR. THE EXTENT OF THE POPULATION IS UNKNOWN AT THIS TIME, WHICH IS A MAJOR CONCERN FOR RICHARD NIELSEN. WHOSE FAMILY HAS INVESTED THEIR FUTURE IN THE GOLDEN CRAB.
>>>NIELSEN: Since all other fisheries are exploited, this is it. If-if we let this crab go the way of other fisheries, then we're going to have to sell this boat .
>>>THE NIELSEN'S ARE TRYING TO SUSTAIN THE GOLDEN CRAB POPULATION BY WORKING WITH THE SOUTH ATLANTIC FISHERY MANAGEMENT COUNCIL TO DECIDE ON THE KINDS OF REGULATIONS NEEDED FOR THIS FLEDGLING INDUSTRY.
>>>NIELSEN: We want some good biological regulations, no female crabs being taken, the females are much smaller than the males, they're a lot less numerous than the males, escape gaps in the traps to let the smaller crabs out from the bottom, number of vessels limited.
>>>REGULATIONS FOR CATCHING GOLDEN CRAB IN THE ATLANTIC SHOULD BE IN EFFECT BY THE END OF 1996. BY HELPING TO SET GUIDELINES BEFORE THEY'RE ACTUALLY NEEDED, THESE FISHERMEN HOPE TO ENSURE A GOLDEN FUTURE FOR THICSELVES AND THE CRAB POPULATION. GOLDEN CRAB IN FLORIDA COMES FRESH FROM THE SEA TO THE TABLE, BUT WHAT DO WE KNOW ABOUT THE SEAFOOD IMPORTED FROM OTHER COUNTRIES? Fade to and from black.
---(Shrimp machine)---
>>>THIS COULD BE CALLED A SPECIAL SCHOOL FOR SHRIMP. THIS UNIVERSITY OF FLORIDA LAB IS THE SITE OF RIGOROUS TESTING TO SEE IF IMPORTED SHRIMP MAKE THE GRADE.
---(The computer will analyze the shrimp and give us a score based on texture.)---
>>>DR. MURAT BALABAN-UF FOOD SCIENCE ENGINEER: About 70% of the shrimp that's processed in Florida is imported, and last year the US imported two billion dollars worth of shrimp. Since all the shrimp, or most of the shrimp is coming from the outside, it's important that we evaluate the quality of the shrimp.
---(beep, beep)--
>>>THE HI-TECH APPROACH TO EVALUATING SHRIMP QUALITY USES A CAMERA, COMPUTER, AND VARIOUS SENSORY systems TO TELL IF THE SHRIMP IS GRADE A. IF IT FAILS THE TEST, THE SHRIMP IS REJECTED BUT IF IT PASSES, THE CONSUMER'S PLATE IS THE NEXT STOP. EXPERTS WITH THE UNIVERSITY OF FLORIDA AND FLORIDA SEA GRANT SAY AUTOMATING THE PROCESS OF SHRIMP EVALUATION IS THE KEY.
>>>BALABAN: Currently, shrimp quality is evaluated in a totally subjective manner. There are experts that evaluate the quality of shrimp, and they look at the shrimp to evaluate the visual characteristics, then they smell the shrimp to evaluate the olfactory characteristics, and they finally touch the shrimp to have an idea about the texture. And then they will give an overall grade to the shrimp, and that affects also the price of the shrimp. But this is subjective, there is going to be differences from one inspector to the next, and from one inspector today to one week from now.
---(We reject the sample then we can also look at the spectrum, the color spectrum of all of this. Okay, so here's the color spectrum.)---
>>>BALABAN: What we have been trying to do was to automate this process, and to make it objective and repeatable. By objective we mean that, machines or instruments will evaluate the quality. And by repeatable, we mean that if the same shrimp is evaluated here or in Honduras or in China, it's going to give the same value as to the evaluation of the shrimp.
>>>THE SYSTEM WORKS BY TAKING A SAMPLE FROM A BATCH OF SHRIMP AND PLACING IT IN A LIGHT BOX WITH A CAMERA MOUNTED ABOVE. THE COMPUTER CATCHES THE IMAGE OF THE SHRIMP THROUGH THE CAMERA AND ANALYZES IT.
>>>DIEGO LUZURIAGA-UF GRAD STUDENT: First of all, in the visual analysis, we're looking at the melanosis, which are the black spots in the shrimp. We're looking at the color of the shrimp, just to have an idea the different types of shrimp, pink, white, tiger, okay so we can have the color spectrum of each shrimp, and we can tell the difference between each one or the other one, okay. We're looking at the count, which is the amount of shrimp per pound, okay, which will determine the size of the shrimp. We're looking at the uniformity ratio. Tells the uniformity of the size of the shrimp in the sample, and we're looking if there's broken pieces or foreign objects in the sample.
>>>WHEN IT COMES TO SMELLING OR TOUCHING THE SHRIMP TO DETERMINE ODOR OR TEXTURE, YOU WOULD THINK A COMPUTER WOULD HAVE A TOUGH TIME OF IT...BUT NOT THIS ONE. BY USING A SERIES OF GADGETS, THE SHRIMP IS POKED AND PRODDED TO TEST ITS ELASTICITY.
>>>BALABAN: Texture is important in the overall quality of shrimp because again there is a correlation between the texture and how fresh the shrimp is. Generally a fresh shrimp is very springy, and as it ages it loses that springiness. What we do is we put some amount of force on the shrimp and then we measure the deformation of the shrimp, and that curves tells us how elastic the shrimp is. The more elastic the shrimp the better the shrimp is, actually.
>>>FOR A NOSE, THE COMPUTER USING SOMETHING CALLED AN AMMONIA BOX TO SNIFF OUT THE BUILD UP OF AMMONIA WHICH SPELLS TROUBLE FOR A SHRIMP SAMPLE.
>>>BALABAN: The ammonia is an indicator of a shrimp going bad. In fresh shrimp there is virtually no ammonia to speak of, and as shrimp ages the level of ammonia increases and we are trying to measure that increase in ammonia, and--and correlate that to the freshness of shrimp
>>>IN ADDITION TO THE AMMONIA BOX, THE AUTOMATED SYSTEM ALSO HAS AN ELECTRONIC NOSE WHICH DETECTS CHEMICALS AND ODORS BESIDES AMMONIA SUCH AS A RANCID FISHY SMELL. THE NOSE IS SO PRECISE, EXPERTS SAY IT CAN TELL THE DIFFERENCE BETWEEN 1, 2, AND 3 DAYS OLD SHRIMP. UF RESEARCHERS ARE NOW TRYING TO INCORPORATE THE NEW FUNCTION INTO THE OVERALL SYSTEM.
>>>BALABAN: The reason this is important to the consumer is because there is a direct correlationship between the quality of the shrimp and the safety of the shrimp. In other words, aged shrimp, bad shrimp, is also not safe, in general.
>>>PROJECT ORGANIZERS HAVE WORKED CLOSELY WITH SHRIMP PRODUCERS TO DEVELOP THE AUTOMATED SHRIMP GRADING SYSTEM SO THEY'RE OPTIMISTIC IT'LL MEET THEIR NEEDS.
>>>THROUGH THESE PROGRAMS, AND OTHERS LIKE THEM, THE UNIVERSITY OF FLORIDA AND FLORIDA SEA GRANT COLLEGE WILL CONTINUE TO LOOK FOR WAYS TO IMPROVE FLORIDA'S SEAFOOD INDUSTRY, AND TO ENCOURAGE RESIDENTS TO DO THEIR PART IN PRESERVING FLORIDA'S MARINE ENVIRONMENT. Fade to and from black.
>>>FOR MORE INFORMATION ON SUBJECTS SEEN TODAY ON IMPACT, AND A FREE SUBSCRIPTION TO IMPACT MAGAZINE, WRITE TO IMPACT, P.O. BOX 110190, GAINESVILLE, FLORIDA, 32611-0190. OR CALL 352-392-0437. TRANSCRIPTS ARE ALSO AVAILABLE FOR SIX DOLLARS. VIDEO COPIES ARE TWELVE DOLLARS. VISA AND MASTERCARD ARE ACCEPTED. AND REMEMBER TO VISIT OUR WEB PAGE FOR MORE ON UNIVERSITY OF FLORIDA RESEARCH AND EDUCATION.
>>>IMPACT, A WEEKLY LOOK AT ISSUES AND ANSWERS THAT IMPACT OUR LIVES AND THE WORLD AROUND US. IT'S PRODUCED BY THE UNIVERSITY OF FLORIDA'S INSTITUTE OF FOOD AND AGRICULTURAL SCIENCES.