Sea Turtle Bycatch Welfare: Reducing Incidental Capture and Injury

Sea turtle bycatch in commercial fishing operations causes hundreds of thousands of deaths and injuries annually, with turtle excluder devices and circle hooks offering proven welfare solutions.

Key Facts

An estimated 250,000 sea turtles are accidentally caught in fishing gear annually across all ocean fisheries
Loggerhead and leatherback sea turtles are most vulnerable to longline and trawl bycatch
Turtle excluder devices (TEDs) in shrimp trawls reduce sea turtle capture by 97% without significant catch loss
Circle hooks in pelagic longlines reduce sea turtle bycatch by 85% compared to J-hooks
Turtles caught in nets and held submerged suffer hypoxia and can die even when released if resuscitation is not provided

Welfare Considerations

Sea turtle bycatch causes welfare harm across the full severity spectrum — from acute drowning deaths to sublethal injuries from hook ingestion, entanglement trauma, and handling. Welfare-positive fishing practices are well-established and proven: TEDs, circle hooks, seasonal fishing area closures, and rapid release protocols with resuscitation. The barrier to adoption is primarily economic and regulatory, not technical. Consumer demand for certified sustainable seafood creates market incentives for fisheries to adopt bycatch reduction technology.

What You Can Do

Choose seafood certified by MSC or equivalent schemes that include bycatch reduction requirements
Support NGO campaigns for mandatory TED requirements in all shrimp trawl fisheries globally
Donate to sea turtle stranding networks that provide veterinary care for bycatch-injured turtles