Marine Turtle Bycatch Welfare | Animal Welfare Hub

The welfare harm caused by incidental capture of sea turtles in commercial fishing gear.

Key Facts

An estimated 250,000 sea turtles are killed or seriously injured in fishing gear annually
Longlines, trawls, and gillnets are the primary gear types responsible for sea turtle bycatch
Turtles caught in nets drown when unable to surface for air, typically over hours
Circle hooks and fish bait significantly reduce sea turtle bycatch compared to J-hooks with squid
Turtle Excluder Devices allow turtles to escape from trawl nets and are mandatory in some fisheries
Bycatch interactions cause serious injury to survivors including flipper trauma and hook ingestion

Welfare Considerations

Sea turtle bycatch causes significant welfare harm at scale: drowning in nets is a prolonged death, and surviving turtles often carry serious injuries from hooks, entanglement, or propeller strikes. The welfare harm to individual animals is compounded by the conservation significance of each individual in already-threatened populations. Fishing gear modifications that reduce bycatch — circle hooks, TEDs, modified longline designs — represent welfare interventions that also serve conservation goals. Consumer choice and fisheries policy that support low-bycatch fishing methods are among the most direct ways to reduce sea turtle suffering from this source.

What You Can Do

Choose seafood certified by schemes that require low turtle bycatch fishing methods
Support fisheries legislation requiring Turtle Excluder Devices in trawl fisheries
Advocate for circle hook requirements in longline fisheries targeting species with high turtle bycatch
Donate to organizations working on bycatch reduction technology and fishery observer programmes
Raise awareness of sea turtle bycatch as a significant, ongoing welfare issue in global fisheries