New U.S. Protection Will Save Sea Turtles from Dangerous Fishing Gear - Oceana USA

Victory | December 5, 2019

New U.S. Protection Will Save Sea Turtles from Dangerous Fishing Gear

The United States government finalized a rule protecting sea turtles from shrimp trawls in the Gulf of Mexico and Atlantic Ocean. This action comes after legal action from Oceana alleging that the federal government violated the Endangered Species Act in its failure to protect sea turtles from this fishery. The rule will require more than 1,000 additional shrimp vessels to deploy Turtle Excluder Devices (TEDs), which are 97% effective at allowing sea turtles to escape shrimp nets and which would save as many as 1,150 endangered and threatened sea turtles every year.