Sea turtles are frequently caught in fishing gear targeting other species. Bycatch causes drowning, injury, and death in populations already under conservation pressure. Mitigation measures are available and effective.
Sea turtle bycatch causes significant welfare harm: turtles that are caught on longline hooks or trapped in trawl nets experience distress, physical injury from hooks, and often death by drowning when unable to surface. The welfare suffering of individual turtles is compounded by the conservation context - these are long-lived animals with slow reproduction rates, where each individual represents significant biological investment by its population. Turtle Excluder Devices and circle hooks are proven mitigation measures that reduce bycatch substantially with acceptable impacts on target catch. Their universal adoption is both a welfare and conservation priority.