Sea turtle bycatch in commercial fishing operations causes drowning, serious injury, and death. Turtle excluder devices and other mitigation measures significantly reduce this preventable welfare harm.
Sea turtle bycatch causes severe acute welfare harm. Turtles caught in trawl nets may drown before nets are hauled — even if alive when retrieved, they have often experienced prolonged hypoxia causing organ damage. Those caught on longlines sustain hook injuries that require surgical intervention for survival. Propeller strikes from fishing vessels cause severe shell and soft tissue trauma. The scale of bycatch mortality — hundreds of thousands of animals annually — represents an immense aggregate welfare harm to populations already under pressure from habitat loss and climate change. TEDs and modified fishing gear are proven solutions; their global adoption is the most direct available intervention.