turtle escape devices

Did you know that all six species of sea turtles in U.S. waters are listed under the Endangered Species Act?

Then I bet you'd be surprised to find out that our country's trawl fisheries still catch hundreds of sea turtles in their nets every year, killing or severely injuring many of them. Loggerhead turtles have been protected for 30 years, but their numbers continue to decline.

Fortunately, there's a way to prevent this: It's called a Turtle Excluder Device - or TED - and it's an "escape hatch" that allows a sea turtle to wiggle out of the trawl net, relatively unharmed.

While some fisheries use TEDs, too many do not - why? Because they're not required to.