Story at a glance
- Commerce Secretary Wilbur Ross approved new regulations protecting sea turtles from dying in shrimp nets.
- Sea turtles in the waters of the U.S. are endangered, and approximately 1,342 sea turtles die in nets annually.
- The new hardware will be required by 2021.
U.S. Secretary of Commerce Wilbur Ross announced today that his office has finalized a rule to help prevent sea turtle deaths in certain shrimp trawls in the Gulf of Mexico and Atlantic Ocean.
The new rule will require Turtle Excluder Devices (TEDs), or a device made of metal bars and mesh that is inserted into a shrimp trawl net to prevent turtles from getting trapped inside the netting. TEDs will be placed in more than 1,000 shrimp vessels and are estimated to save approximately 1,150 sea turtles a year.
Currently, all sea turtles that exist in U.S. waters are classified as endangered. The new regulations were finalized in response to a 2015 lawsuit that alleged the federal government had violated the Endangered Species Act by failing to protect, track and regulate endangered turtle activity in the U.S.’s Southeast waters.
Fishery campaign manager Gib Brogran of the advocacy organization Oceana said, in a press release, that, “This new rule is a step forward for sea turtles and for the American shrimp industry. With the simple solution of requiring more shrimp boats to use TEDs, we will improve the survival and recovery of sea turtle populations, as well as make our domestic shrimp fishery more sustainable, bolstering trust in American fisheries.”
The new regulations will be put into effect in April 2021.
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