Please join us in the international effort to protect sea turtles. As shrimp nets drag through the water, they capture sea turtles and tons of unwanted fish along with the shrimp. If the turtles can't escape, they drown. A metal grid sewn into the net can prevent most of these deaths. Known as a Turtle Excluder Device, or TED, the grid guides turtles to an opening in the net.
Shrimp pass through the grid and into the back of the net.
By buying only shrimp certified to be caught using fishing gear that allows turtles to escape from shrimp nets, consumers can both support fishers who are responsibly using this gear and provide an incentive to others to follow their example. After five successful years, Turtle-Safe Certification was suspended Jan. 1, 2001. Since 1989, the Sea Turtle Restoration Project has been working directly in Central America with coastal communities in an effort to protect sea turtles. Mexico and Central America hold some of the most critical coastal and ocean habitat for sea turtles in this hemisphere. Unfortunately, Central American sea turtles, despite years of effort, still face grave threats to their future - including the development of nesting sites, the slaughter of pregnant females, the unsustainable poaching of eggs, and the killing of sea turtles by industrial fishing fleets.