The State of the World's Sea Turtles | SWOT

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Threats to Sea Turtles: Fisheries Bycatch

Ashleigh Bandimere

By NICOLAS PILCHER

Fisherman Jesus “Chuy” Lucero leads sea turtle monitoring efforts in Baja California, Mexico. © Brian J. Hutchinson

Fisheries bycatch is one of the greatest threats to sea turtles worldwide, and yet it is a threat that remains vastly underreported, poorly quantified, and minimally addressed outside of a handful of commercial shrimp trawl and long-line fisheries. Our global turtle conservation community has known this all along, of course, and has been working diligently around the world to understand and quantify sea turtle bycatch, set and enforce limits, and find solutions that work for the many stakeholders involved.

Bycatch refers to non-target species, such as sea turtles, that are accidentally captured in fishing nets or lines. These animals become entangled or trapped in gear and will often drown or be so entangled that they cannot effectively swim or feed. Even if sea turtles are hauled up alive onto a boat, if the proper methods for disentanglement and release aren’t followed, the turtle can become severely injured.

Scientists and conservationists at the front lines of bycatch reduction have worked tirelessly with fishers to develop new technologies and solutions, such as the Turtle Excluder Device (TED), circle hooks, nets with lights that repel sea turtles, and better pound nets. However, convincing all fishers to adopt these technologies and getting them written into policy is often more difficult than designing the solutions.

We all have an opportunity to tackle the threat bycatch poses to sea turtles, starting with a call to revolutionize the way the world’s fisheries operate. The movement starts in grocery stores and restaurants where we can “vote with our dollar” for sustainable seafood options that do not impact sea turtles. Check Monterrey Bay Aquarium’s local seafood watch to identify which seafood options in your area are caught sustainably and responsibly.

Here’s hoping that, around the globe, we will have the resources and wherewithal to press for greater, further-reaching, and more effective bycatch reduction efforts – not just for turtles, but for all the species that are collateral victims of fishing.

By Nicolas Pilcher

Guest Online Curator
SWOT Report

SWOT Report Articles Related to Fisheries Bycatch

  1. Hall, M. 2006. Increasing Fishers' Awareness Leads to Decrease in Turtle Bycatch. In SWOT Report— The State of the World’s Sea Turtles, vol. 1: 27.

  2. Steiner, T. 2006. Seafood Diet for a Small Planet. In SWOT Report— The State of the World’s Sea Turtles, vol. 1: 26.

  3. SWOT Editors. 2006. New Deep-Set Longline Is Smart Gear. In SWOT Report— The State of the World’s Sea Turtles, vol. 1: 25.

  4. Peckham, H., Laudino Santillán, J., & Nichols, W. J. 2007. Baja: Fishers Work to Conserve Loggerhead Foraging Grounds. In SWOT Report— The State of the World’s Sea Turtles, vol. 2: 17.

  5. Eckert, S. 2007. The Net Gain of working with Fishers to Reduce Bycatch. In SWOT Report— The State of the World’s Sea Turtles, vol. 2: 34.

  6. Drews, C. 2008. Progress Report: Fishers Reduce Bycatch in the Eastern Tropical Pacific. In SWOT Report— The State of the World’s Sea Turtles, vol. 3: 34.

  7. Howell, E., Kobayashi, D., Parker, D., Balazs, G., & Polovina, J. 2009. TurtleWatch - Turtle Watch Minimises Clashes between Loggerheads and Longliners. In SWOT Report— The State of the World’s Sea Turtles, vol. 4: 36-37.

  8. Gunn, R., & Veenstra, T. 2009. Ghost Nets. In SWOT Report— The State of the World’s Sea Turtles, vol. 4: 31-33.

  9. Pilcher, N. J., & Robins, C. 2010. Trials and Tribulations of Turtle Excluder Devices. In SWOT Report— The State of the World’s Sea Turtles, vol. 5: 18-21.

  10. Alfaro-Shigueto, J., & Mangel, J. C. 2012. Two-Way Radios Save Turtles and Help Peruvian Fishermen. In SWOT Report— The State of the World’s Sea Turtles, vol. 7: 15.

  11. Bourjea, J., Dalleau, M., & Ciccione, S. 2012. Revealing the Secrets of Sea Turtle Migration in the Southwest Indian Ocean. In SWOT Report— The State of the World’s Sea Turtles, vol. 7: 10-11.

  12. Ishihara, T., Matsuzawa, Y., Wang, J., & Peckham, H. 2012. Building a Better Pound Net. In SWOT Report— The State of the World’s Sea Turtles, vol. 7: 16-17.

  13. Wang, J. H., Barkan, J., Fisler, S., & Swimmer, Y. 2014. Illuminating Innovations in Fisheries Technology Reduce Bycatch. In SWOT Report— The State of the World’s Sea Turtles, vol. 9: 26-27.

  14. Wibbels, T., & Bevan, E. 2015. New Riddle in the Kemp's Ridley Saga. In SWOT Report— The State of the World’s Sea Turtles, vol. 10: 14-17.

  15. Stelfox, M., Hudgins, J., & Gunn, R. 2016. Action on GhostGear. In SWOT Report— The State of the World’s Sea Turtles, vol. 11: 38-39.

  16. Rodriguez Baron, J. M., Williard, A., Abrego, M. E., Tobon, A., Bermudez, D., & Arriatti, Y. 2018. Building Bycatch Solutions from the Ground Up for the East Pacific Leatherback. In SWOT Report— The State of the World’s Sea Turtles, vol. 13: 36-37.

  17. Leslie, A., Jacob, T., Fatima, E., Malayilethu, V., Nalovic, M., & Kelle, L. 2018. Why Europe Needs to Adopt Turtle Excluder Devices. In SWOT Report— The State of the World’s Sea Turtles, vol. 13: 38-39.

  18. Giffoni, B., Sales, G., Fiedler, F. N., Mendilaharsu, M. L., & Marcovaldi, M. A. 2019. The Continuing Tale of Circle Hooks in Brazil. In SWOT Report— The State of the World’s Sea Turtles, vol. 14: 30-32.

  19. Senko, J., Mancini, A., Bailly, M., Christen, J. B., Jenkins, L., & Wang, J. 2020. Do Sea Turtles See the Light? Developing Solar-Powered Illuminated Nets to Reduce Sea Turtle Bycatch. In SWOT Report— The State of the World’s Sea Turtles, vol. 15: 8-11.

Stay tuned for more in this series based on “The 5 Biggest Threats to Sea Turtles” 2006. Their Greatest Challenge in 100 Million Years: Facing the Hazards of Humankind. In SWOT Report— The State of the World’s Sea Turtles, vol. 1: 5.