Sea turtles across all seven species face serious welfare and conservation threats from entanglement in fishing gear, with hundreds of thousands affected annually.
Sea turtle entanglement causes some of the most prolonged and acute welfare impacts of any bycatch situation. A turtle that becomes hooked on a longline may remain on the line for hours before the gear is hauled, experiencing restraint, panic, exhaustion, and in many cases drowning. Turtles that are brought aboard alive with hooks embedded in their throat or esophagus face serious injury during hook removal. The welfare dimension is inseparable from the conservation dimension for sea turtles: any reduction in bycatch mortality improves both population status and prevents individual suffering. The technology to dramatically reduce sea turtle bycatch exists — circle hooks and TEDs are proven, accessible, and in some fisheries already required. Extending these requirements globally and ensuring compliance through monitoring are the critical policy gaps.