Sea Turtle Bycatch: Reducing Accidental Capture in Global Fisheries

How hundreds of thousands of sea turtles are accidentally caught in fishing gear each year, and what technological and policy solutions are reducing this devastating welfare and conservation problem.

Key Facts

An estimated 250,000-300,000 sea turtles are caught as bycatch in fisheries globally each year, causing significant mortality and injury
Longline fishing, trawling, and gillnet fisheries are the primary sources of sea turtle bycatch across all major ocean basins
Turtle Excluder Devices (TEDs) — grid-like structures fitted to trawl nets — allow turtles to escape while retaining target fish catch
Circle hooks, which cause less internal injury than J-hooks and which turtles are less likely to swallow, significantly reduce sea turtle longline bycatch
Post-release survival of bycaught turtles depends heavily on how long they were submerged and whether they were revived before release
Leatherback and loggerhead turtles are most commonly affected globally; critically endangered hawksbill and Kemp's ridley turtles face severe bycatch pressure
Observer programmes and electronic monitoring of fishing vessels are essential for accurate bycatch quantification and compliance verification

Welfare Considerations

Sea turtle bycatch causes profound individual welfare suffering: drowning deaths for air-breathing reptiles caught in submerged nets, internal injuries from hook ingestion, and barotrauma from rapid surfacing. Turtles that survive capture often sustain injuries — swallowed hooks, entanglement wounds, flipper damage — that cause chronic pain and impaired function. At-vessel mortality review programmes reveal that many "released" turtles are actually already dead or in a state where post-release survival is unlikely. The welfare case for bycatch reduction is compelling both individually and at population scale. Available solutions — TEDs, circle hooks, time-area closures, and fishing gear modifications — are known, effective, and increasingly mandated, but global implementation remains incomplete and compliance monitoring inadequate.

What You Can Do

Choose seafood from certified fisheries with demonstrated low sea turtle bycatch rates and required bycatch mitigation measures
Support policy requiring TEDs and circle hooks in fisheries operating in sea turtle habitat
Advocate for expanded observer coverage and electronic monitoring of fishing vessels to verify bycatch mitigation compliance
Support sea turtle rescue and rehabilitation organisations that treat bycatch-injured individuals
Reduce consumption of seafood from unregulated or poorly monitored fisheries where bycatch mitigation requirements are absent