Sea Turtle Conservation and Bycatch Welfare

Sea turtles face significant welfare threats from bycatch in fishing gear, marine debris entanglement, and nesting habitat loss, making their conservation one of the highest marine welfare priorities.

Key Facts

An estimated 250,000 sea turtles are captured as bycatch in longline fisheries annually
Six of the seven sea turtle species are classified as threatened or endangered on the IUCN Red List
Leatherback turtles can dive to over 1,000 metres and travel thousands of kilometres annually
Turtle Excluder Devices (TEDs) in trawl nets allow turtles to escape while retaining fish catch
Plastic bag ingestion mimics jellyfish prey and causes intestinal blockage and slow death in sea turtles

Welfare Considerations

Sea turtles caught as bycatch experience drowning — they must surface to breathe and die of hypoxia when entangled in bottom trawls or hooked on longlines. Those released alive may have internal injuries from hook wounds or stress-induced debilitation. Leatherback turtles that ingest plastic bags experience intestinal obstruction and a slow death from starvation and blockage. Nesting females disturbed on beaches abandon nests or experience nest failure. The welfare impact across millions of individual turtles in declining populations represents an enormous scale of preventable suffering that TEDs, hook modifications, and plastic reduction can address.

What You Can Do

Support campaigns for mandatory Turtle Excluder Devices in trawl fisheries worldwide
Reduce single-use plastic consumption to decrease the volume of plastic entering marine environments
Donate to sea turtle conservation organisations managing nesting beach protection
Report sea turtle bycatch and strandings to local conservation authorities