Marine Turtle Bycatch Welfare | Animal Welfare Hub

Sea turtles caught as bycatch in fishing gear experience drowning, traumatic injury, and death in significant numbers across global fisheries.

Key Facts

All seven sea turtle species are endangered or threatened with extinction
Bycatch is a leading cause of sea turtle mortality globally
Longline fishing affects leatherback and loggerhead turtles particularly severely
Shrimp trawling historically killed tens of thousands of sea turtles annually in the USA
Turtle Excluder Devices (TEDs) reduce turtle bycatch by 97% in trawl fisheries
Circle hooks instead of J-hooks significantly reduce sea turtle longline bycatch
Sea turtles can drown in trawl nets in as little as 7 minutes
Bycatch reduction devices are required by US law but enforcement outside domestic waters is limited

Welfare Considerations

Sea turtles that are air-breathing reptiles drown in fishing gear over several distressing minutes. Turtles hooked on longlines may hang for hours or days before the gear is retrieved, causing exhaustion, injury, and organ damage from hypothermia in cold waters. Even turtles that appear alive when retrieved often have internal injuries that cause delayed death after release. The welfare cost of global sea turtle bycatch represents millions of hours of suffering annually. Technology exists to substantially reduce this - TEDs, circle hooks, and time-area closures can dramatically reduce turtle encounters with fishing gear. The barrier is economic cost and enforcement of required measures.

What You Can Do

Support US regulations requiring TEDs in all shrimp trawls
Choose shrimp certified by programs requiring bycatch reduction devices
Advocate for circle hook requirements in longline fisheries catching turtles
Support sea turtle satellite tracking research that identifies critical habitat and bycatch hotspots
Reduce shrimp consumption from non-certified fisheries without bycatch requirements