Sea Turtle Bycatch: Drowning in Fishing Nets and the Path to Solutions

Sea turtles are ancient mariners threatened by a modern problem: accidental capture in fishing gear. Bycatch drowning causes significant welfare suffering and contributes to population decline across all seven sea turtle species.

Key Facts

All seven species of sea turtle are listed as threatened or endangered; bycatch is among the leading causes of adult mortality.
Sea turtles breathe air — entanglement in gill nets, longlines, and trawl nets causes drowning within minutes to hours.
An estimated 250,000 loggerhead and leatherback turtles are accidentally caught in US fisheries annually.
Turtle Excluder Devices (TEDs) — trapdoors in trawl nets that allow turtles to escape — reduce turtle bycatch by up to 97%.
Circle hooks on longlines, compared to J-hooks, reduce turtle bycatch by 80-90% while maintaining target species catch.
Turtles that survive bycatch events may suffer hook injuries in the digestive system, flipper entanglement injuries, or cold stun from stress.

Welfare Considerations

Drowning in fishing gear causes significant suffering for individual sea turtles — consciousness is maintained during the process, and the experience of suffocation represents acute distress. Turtles caught on longline hooks may survive for hours with hook injuries before the gear is retrieved. The welfare case for bycatch reduction technology adoption is overwhelming — TEDs and circle hooks are proven, available, and often cost-neutral for fishers. The barrier is regulatory enforcement and industry willingness to change gear. Where turtles are found alive after bycatch, rapid release and veterinary assessment dramatically improve survival. Stranding networks that respond to bycatch-injured turtles provide important individual welfare support.

What You Can Do

Choose seafood from fisheries certified by Marine Stewardship Council (MSC) with bycatch reduction requirements.
Support sea turtle stranding response organisations that rescue and rehabilitate bycatch survivors.
Advocate for mandatory TED use in all trawl fisheries operating in sea turtle habitat.
Donate to Oceanic Society, Sea Turtle Conservancy, or WWF's turtle bycatch reduction programmes.
Reduce seafood consumption from poorly managed fisheries without bycatch monitoring or reduction programmes.