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Marine Turtle Newsletter 50:11-12, © 1990

Sea Turtle Conservation Requires Mandatory Use of TEDs:
National Academy of Sciences/Research Council Report Available

WASHINGTON D. C. - Turtle excluder devices (TEDs) should be required for all shrimp trawls at most places and most times of the year from Cape Hatteras, North Carolina, to the Texas-Mexico border to protect sea turtle species now covered by the Endangered Species Act, a committee of experts has concluded. Shrimp trawls, which accidentally capture turtles in nets that are drawn along the sea floor, are by far the greatest source of turtle mortality by humans, according the National Research Council committee. At least 11,000 turtles, and possibly three to four times that many, die as a result of shrimp fishing each year, it said. TEDs are "the best method currently available" to conserve populations of the Kemp's ridley, loggerhead, green, hawksbill, and leatherback sea turtles, the committee concluded. At a few places and times where TEDs might be ineffective - for example, where there is a great deal of vegetation or debris in the water - alternative measures might be required, such as reducing the length of time shrimp nets are in the water or, as a last resort, closing some fisheries.

Moreover, because habitat degradation and predation also result in turtle deaths, conservation and recovery of all U. S. sea turtle species should include protection of nesting habitats, eggs, and animals of all sizes. Incidental deaths associated with other human activities -- such as flounder fisheries, dredging, oil-rig removal, and plastic debris and abandoned fishing gear in the ocean -- should also be better studied and reduced, the committee said. Protection of important nesting beaches also is "critical". In the U. S., the most critical areas are turtle nest sites of the Hutchinson Island and Wabasso Beach areas of Florida. The area supports 1/3 of the green turtle nests and 1/4 of loggerhead nests in the U. S. In particular, the committee stressed that purchase for conservation purposes of this beach property is the best approach. In addition, lighting ordinances to prevent artificial light from disrupting turtle nesting and restrictions placed on pedestrian and vehicular traffic on nesting beaches should be implemented.

As specified in the 1988 amendments to the federal Endangered Species Act, the National Oceanic and Atmospheric Administration of the U. S. Department of Commerce asked the Research Council to study the five turtle species and their ecology and identify strategies to protect them from further population decline. The 10-member study committee was chaired by John J. Magnuson, Department of Zoology, University of Wisconsin, Madison. The committee's report, "Decline of the Sea Turtles: Causes and Prevention", will be available in September 1990 for US$ 14.95 from the National Academy Press, 2101 Constitution Avenue N. W., Washington D. C. 20418 USA. Source: excerpted from News from the National Research Council (press release), 17 May 1990.