Marine turtles face significant welfare impacts from accidental capture in fishing gear, with drowning and handling injuries causing suffering for hundreds of thousands of turtles annually.
Marine turtle bycatch causes both individual welfare harm and population-level conservation damage to species already under severe pressure. Individual turtles caught in trawl nets experience drowning - a prolonged, distressing death. Those surviving capture may be injured by hooks or handling, suffer from barotrauma, or die from stress responses. The welfare and conservation case for gear modifications including circle hooks and TEDs is robust - these interventions dramatically reduce bycatch rates with modest cost to fishers. Consumer choices about seafood sourcing can drive adoption of bycatch reduction measures through market pressure.