Marine Turtle Bycatch: Reducing Accidental Capture Suffering

Sea turtles are accidentally captured in fishing gear globally, causing injury, drowning, and death at a scale that threatens populations and causes immense individual suffering.

Key Facts

An estimated 250,000 sea turtles are accidentally caught in fishing gear each year globally
Longline, trawl, and gillnet fisheries all pose significant bycatch risk to multiple sea turtle species
Turtle Excluder Devices (TEDs) allow turtles to escape trawl nets and have been mandatory in US shrimp trawls since 1989
Circle hooks instead of J-hooks significantly reduce sea turtle longline bycatch without reducing target fish catch
All seven sea turtle species are listed as vulnerable, endangered, or critically endangered
Turtles drowned in fishing gear experience significant distress before death

Welfare Considerations

Sea turtle bycatch causes both conservation harm and significant individual animal suffering. Turtles caught in nets and on longlines experience struggling, exhaustion, injury from hooks, and drowning. Mitigation measures — TEDs, circle hooks, time-area closures, and modified gear designs — are proven effective at reducing capture rates without unacceptable commercial costs. Mandatory adoption of these measures globally, combined with observer programs to verify compliance, would protect millions of individual turtles from injury and death annually.

What You Can Do

Choose seafood from fisheries certified to have implemented turtle bycatch mitigation measures
Support organizations advocating for global mandatory TED and circle hook requirements
Ask seafood retailers about bycatch mitigation in their supply chains for trawl and longline fisheries
Donate to sea turtle conservation organizations that work on bycatch reduction and rescue programs