Oceana, the largest international advocacy group working solely to protect the world’s oceans, today released a new report outlining violations of sea turtle protection regulations in the Gulf of Mexico Shrimp Fishery. Specifically, the data shows that illegal fishing in the Gulf is killing thousands of threatened and endangered sea turtles, far more than had originally been estimated and approved by the U.S. government under the Endangered Species Act (ESA).
Oceana’s report documents violations of the fishery to use Turtle Excluder Devices (TEDs), which allow sea turtles to escape instead of drowning in the nets. It also provides a sea turtle mortality estimate for Gulf bottom otter trawls, taking into account the documented illegal activity. Gulf bottom otter trawls alone are killing at least 4,874 loggerhead and 108 leatherback sea turtles, which is significantly higher than the ESA authorized catch limit for these species for the entire shrimp fishery.
In a letter today to the National Marine Fisheries Service (NMFS), Oceana notified the government that it will sue unless immediate action is taken to remedy these violations and protect sea turtles.
Read the complete press release from Oceana