Sea turtle bycatch in commercial fishing operations causes significant welfare harm and population-level conservation impacts across all seven sea turtle species.
Bycatch drowning causes acute suffering — sea turtles are air-breathing reptiles that experience the conscious experience of drowning before death when entangled in submerged gear. The physiological process takes minutes to tens of minutes, during which the animal is actively distressed. Even turtles that are retrieved alive after entanglement often die from the associated trauma, stress, and injury. Non-lethal entanglement injuries include flipper loss from monofilament cutting through tissue over time, and internal injuries from ingested hooks. Circle hooks and TEDs represent proven welfare solutions that dramatically reduce bycatch without prohibitive economic cost to fishers — their adoption should be universal rather than jurisdiction-dependent. Ghost gear continues welfare harm long after leaving human hands.