The Texas coast, home to numerous species of sea turtles, some endangered, is also home to a large and influential shrimping industry. This is the story of the work to save the rare and endangered sea turtles in the face of industry opposition and governmental inaction. Between 1980 and 1999, over 5,000 sea turtles, including 1,811 Kemp's ridley were found dead or disabled on Texas beaches. The Kemp's ridley, the most severely endangered sea turtle species, now numbers fewer than 2,000 females, down from over 40,000 recorded in 1947. Most sea turtle biologists believe that shrimp boats and fishing methods account for the great majority of sea turtle deaths in Texas.
Sea turtles die when struck by boats, or drown in trawl nets.
These risks increase when sea turtles converge to feed on the by-catch discarded by shrimping boats. Some of the video footage, included in our movie files, was provided by The Humane Society of the United States and we thank them for their permission granting its use. End Risks of lethal encounters with shrimping vessels also increase when shrimping activity intensifies in nearshore waters where sea turtles congregate to feed and mate. Sea turtle strandings closely track the timing of the annual shrimping season, increasing during the commercial shrimping season from February 2nd to May 14th and between July 16th to December 15th. Predictably, strandings decrease during the mid-season closure between May 15th to July 15th.