The organization based its new estimate of leatherback and loggerhead turtle deaths on federal fishery regulators' emails about periodic checks on the use of the turtle-excluder devices. The group obtained the emails under the Freedom of Information Act. If the memos capture a representative sample of the fleet, the group estimates that 4,874 loggerheads and 108 leatherbacks were killed in the nets last year.

"There are other types of fishing gear that can be dangerous to sea turtles, and there are other problems like oil spills and plastic pollution, but we think the greatest threat now is the shrimp trawl fishery," said Elizabeth Griffin Wilson, senior manager for marine wildlife at Oceana.

Shrimp boats that trawl on the seafloor have been required to have turtle-excluder devices for nearly 20 years. But Oceana said the problem of sea turtle deaths remained unsolved because of noncompliance, poor enforcement and exemption from the rule for some types of trawlers.

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