Marine Turtle Bycatch: Reducing Accidental Mortality in Fishing Gear

Marine turtle bycatch in fishing gear causes hundreds of thousands of deaths and injuries annually. Practical solutions exist and their widespread adoption is an urgent welfare and conservation priority.

Key Facts

All seven marine turtle species are listed as Vulnerable, Endangered, or Critically Endangered
An estimated 250,000 sea turtles are accidentally caught in fishing gear each year globally
Longline fisheries targeting tuna and swordfish have particularly high turtle bycatch rates
Trawl fisheries use Turtle Excluder Devices (TEDs) mandated in many jurisdictions; these dramatically reduce bycatch mortality
Circle hooks, used instead of J-hooks in longline fisheries, reduce turtle capture rates by up to 90%
Turtles caught in nets may drown within minutes to hours; those reaching the surface may survive if handled correctly
At-vessel mortality and post-release mortality both count in bycatch welfare impact assessments
Fisheries observer programmes that document bycatch are essential for monitoring and enforcement

Welfare Considerations

Marine turtle bycatch causes both individual suffering and population-level conservation harm. Turtles entangled in nets or hooked by longlines experience drowning, exhaustion, physical trauma, and stress before death or release. Post-release survival depends heavily on the extent of injury and the quality of handling on deck; turtles that are revived and released carefully have substantially better outcomes than those discarded without assessment. The welfare and conservation case for adopting proven bycatch reduction technologies is overwhelming: TEDs and circle hooks are available, cost-effective, and demonstrably effective. The barriers are economic, regulatory, and cultural. Consumer choices of certified sustainable seafood that requires bycatch monitoring and mitigation create market incentives for adoption beyond what regulation alone achieves.

What You Can Do

Choose seafood certified by MSC or equivalent schemes that require bycatch monitoring and mitigation
Support legislation mandating TEDs in trawl fisheries and circle hooks in longline fisheries in your jurisdiction
Learn about marine turtle bycatch and share information about available solutions
Avoid single-use plastic that contributes to marine debris entangling sea turtles
Support fisheries observer programmes that monitor bycatch levels
Donate to organisations working on turtle bycatch reduction and rehabilitation
Ask retailers about the bycatch reduction standards required from their seafood suppliers