Preserving Sea Turtles in United States

Preserving Sea Turtles in United States

Sea turtles, which have been around for millions of years, are on the brink of extinction. In many countries, people consider their meat and eggs as prized delicacies. Often times they are just killed for their beautiful shell. However, the leading cause of sea turtle death in the US can be attributed to shrimp fishermen and the nets they use to catch shrimp (1). Each year, thousands of sea turtles are carelessly killed even though there are measures which can be taken to avoid this catastrophe. With proper usage of a device called the Turtle Excluder Device (TED), shrimp fishermen could reduce sea turtle deaths in their nets by 97% (5) thereby increasing the likelihood for survival of all six species of sea turtles found in US waters that are currently protected under the Endangered Species Act of 1973 (7).

Sea turtles are beautiful saltwater reptiles that have been on earth for over 150 million years (2). They have streamlined bodies and flipper-like limbs that allow them to swim long distances in a relatively short period of time. Like all other animals, sea turtles too must have access to oxygen. When they are active, they must return to the ocean surface to breathe every few minutes. Sea turtles live most of their lives in the ocean but the females must return to land in order to lay their eggs. Scientists believe that nesting female turtles return to the same beach on which they were born. They must swim long distances from their feeding grounds and just how they find their nesting beaches is unknown (7).

All six species of sea turtles that are found in US waters are protected under the Endangered Species act of 1973. These include the green, hawksbill, Kemp’s ridley, leathe...

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...This insures that the shrimp you have purchased is from ships which use Turtle Excluding Devices (3). Turtle-safe shrimp is a consumer-based to for the protection of endangered sea turtles much the way dolphin-safe tuna was a tool for the protection of dolphins. By supporting fishermen who are conscientiously using TEDs to preserve sea turtles, we are providing and incentive to others to follow their example.

WEBSITES CITED

1. http://www.earthisland.org/ei/strp/strpted.html

2. http://www.earthisland.org/ei/strp/strpprob.html

3. http://www.earthisland.org/ei/strp/tsafe1dry.html

4. http://www.igc.apc.org/ei/strp/0396gulfc.html

5. http://www.igc.apc.org/ei/strp/0396saveesa.html

6. http://www.igc.apc.org/ei/strp/0396victory.html

7. http://www.kingfish.ssp.nmfs.gov/tmcintyr/turtles/turtle.html

8. http://www.nfi.org/pressrel/961029NJGO.html