Wild Sea Turtle Bycatch and Entanglement Welfare

Sea turtles are caught as bycatch in multiple fishery types worldwide. Drowning, injury from gear, and stress during capture cause significant welfare harms to these long-lived animals.

Key Facts

All seven sea turtle species are listed as threatened or endangered, with bycatch as a leading mortality cause
Loggerhead, leatherback, and olive ridley turtles are particularly vulnerable to longline and trawl fisheries
Turtle Excluder Devices are required in US shrimp trawls and dramatically reduce turtle bycatch and drowning
Entangled turtles that survive capture may retain gear that causes chronic injury and impaired movement
Loggerhead turtles caught on longlines survive at higher rates when hooks are removed quickly and turtles resuscitated
Ghost gear, abandoned or lost fishing equipment, continues to entangle and drown turtles long after being lost
At-sea release protocols for live-captured turtles significantly improve survival rates compared to onboard retention

Welfare Considerations

Sea turtle bycatch causes welfare harms ranging from acute drowning death to chronic injury from retained gear and prolonged stress during capture. Turtles that drown in trawl nets experience oxygen deprivation that may be reversible if turtles are resuscitated promptly on deck, making onboard response protocols a significant welfare determinant. Turtles surviving longline capture with hooks embedded in throat or stomach experience chronic pain and impaired feeding that reduces survival even after release. Ghost gear entanglement causes slow death from drowning, starvation, or injury. Turtle Excluder Devices represent a proven, cost-effective technology that simultaneously reduces bycatch welfare harms and protects endangered populations, making their adoption in all trawl fisheries a priority.

What You Can Do

Choose seafood certified by programs requiring turtle excluder devices in trawl fisheries
Support international fisheries agreements that require sea turtle bycatch mitigation measures
Advocate for ghost gear recovery programs and fishing gear marking requirements that aid retrieval
Donate to sea turtle conservation organizations working on bycatch reduction and rescue programs
Raise awareness about sea turtle bycatch welfare harms and the effectiveness of excluder device technology