Shrimp Trawls Continue to Kill Thousands of Sea Turtles

[Ed. Note: And as long as you eat animals from the oceans, you are directly participating in the deaths of thousands of sea turtles every year...all over the world. Going vegan is NOT just about who you eat, it is about the repercussions and extensions of the industries that kill who you eat. Please also read Number of Dying Sea Turtles Continues to Rise at Alarming Rate.]

FROM  Sea Turtle Restoration Project

ACTION  Tell the National Marine Fisheries Service (NMFS) and the U.S. Fish and Wildlife Service (USFWS) to reclassify U.S. loggerhead sea turtle populations as endangered in the Endangered Species Act. Tell the USFWS Fisheries bycatch is the primary cause of the declines in sea turtle populations around the globe.

Sign an online petition

And/Or make direct contact:

NMFS National Sea Turtle Coordinator
1315 East-West Highway, Room 13657
Silver Spring, MD 20910
email

USFWS National Sea Turtle Coordinator
U.S. Fish and Wildlife Service
7915 Baymeadows Way, Suite 200
Jacksonville, FL 32256
phone (800) 800-344-WILD
online email form

INFORMATION / TALKING POINTS

The horrific BP oil spill.

Powerful opposition from the industrial fisheries are delaying federal actions to reduce deadly bycatch, resulting in more dead sea turtles.

Loggerhead Nesting Declined 40 Percent in Florida

Sea turtle populations are best measured by the success of nesting females. Loggerhead nesting recently declined by 40 percent from 1998-2009 at the largest nesting area in the Atlantic region, Florida beaches. Scientists agree that this population is struggling to recover and must have increased protections from fisheries to rebound.

Shrimp Trawls Continue to Kill Thousands of Sea Turtles

Fisheries bycatch is the primary cause of the declines in sea turtle populations around the globe. New data released by NMFS estimates 5,365 sea turtles were killed in 2009 by South East Atlantic and Gulf of Mexico shrimpers and at least 778 of these were Atlantic loggerheads. This data is a fraction of the true number as it excludes skimmer trawls, which are not required to use Turtle Excluder Devices (TEDs) on their trawl nets.

Thank you for everything you do for animals!