Wild Sea Turtle Bycatch: Scale, Solutions, and Conservation Progress

Sea turtle bycatch in fishing gear kills an estimated 50,000-100,000 turtles annually, but turtle excluder devices and circle hooks have demonstrated that bycatch reduction is achievable without significant catch impacts.

Key Facts

All seven sea turtle species are threatened with bycatch being the leading human-caused mortality source
Shrimp trawl nets historically drowned millions of sea turtles annually before TEDs were mandated
Turtle Excluder Devices (TEDs) allow turtles to escape trawl nets and have dramatically reduced trawl bycatch
Longline fisheries hook turtles that surface to breathe and become entangled around hooks
Circle hooks have been shown to reduce sea turtle hookings by 80% in some pelagic longline fisheries
Sea turtle bycatch in gillnet fisheries remains a major unresolved problem in many regions
NOAA Observer programs document bycatch rates enabling evidence-based management decisions
Sea Turtle Conservancy and WWF work with fishers to implement bycatch reduction measures
Voluntary adoption of bycatch reduction measures has been less successful than regulatory requirements

Welfare Considerations

Sea turtles caught in fishing gear experience drowning stress over minutes to hours depending on gear type. Trawl-caught turtles may survive if they surface within minutes but suffer respiratory distress if trawl duration exceeds their breath-holding capacity. Longline-caught turtles that survive hooking may carry embedded hooks that cause chronic internal injury and infection. The scale of bycatch mortality represents an enormous welfare burden distributed across millions of individual turtles annually. TED regulations demonstrate that regulatory requirements achieve bycatch reduction more reliably than voluntary measures, providing the welfare benefit at the scale required.

What You Can Do

Choose seafood from fisheries with documented low sea turtle bycatch rates and TEDs requirements
Support Sea Turtle Conservancy bycatch reduction programs working with fishing communities
Advocate for circle hook requirements in pelagic longline fisheries to reduce turtle bycatch
Donate to NOAA Sea Turtle Conservation programs funding observer coverage and bycatch monitoring
Learn about TEDs and their effectiveness to share with others who are skeptical of bycatch solutions
Report sea turtle bycatch observations to appropriate fisheries authorities for documentation