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The Trapdoor That Saves Sea Turtles From Shrimp Nets · How To Protect The Ocean

• 0:00
  Picture a shrimp trawl net moving slowly along the bottom of the warm, shallow bay.
• 0:04
  shrimp pour in as the boat moves forward and the net moves forward.
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  Then a Kemp Ridley sea turtle, the most endangered sea turtle on
• 0:11
  Earth, gets swept into the net.
• 0:14
  It hits a metal grid, slides down, and pushed out through a flap in the
• 0:18
  bottom of the net, and swims away.
• 0:20
  The shrimp stay where they are in the net, and they get taken up and put on the deck.
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  But here's what people don't know.
• 0:26
  That little trapdoor is one of the greatest success stories in
• 0:30
  ocean conservation and fisheries management, and we're gonna be talking
• 0:34
  about that on this episode of the How to Protect the Ocean podcast.
• 0:37
  I'm your host, Andrew Lewin.
• 0:38
  I'm a marine biologist and science communicator here to give you information
• 0:42
  on ocean news, ocean science, and ocean conservation, break it all
• 0:45
  down for you, 'cause this is what I love to do, so that you can kinda
• 0:49
  learn more about the ocean, have less ocean anxiety or climate anxiety,
• 0:53
  'cause that's what we all talk about.
• 0:55
  And now, this week, we've been talking about sustainable seafood,
• 0:57
  we've been talking about fisheries, and, last episode, we talked
• 1:01
  about how we take too many fish.
• 1:03
  And today is all about the animals that we never meant to take at all.
• 1:07
  All these bycatch animals, because obviously we don't
• 1:10
  wanna have a lot of bycatch.
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  And if you listen to Monday's episode, where I talked to Dr. David Shiffman,
• 1:15
  who's the author of Why Sustainable Seafood Matters, you're gonna learn
• 1:18
  more about that if you listen to that episode after this one, because I
• 1:22
  talk all about these types of themes, and you get his take on it as well.
• 1:26
  So you can pre-order his book if you go to the link in the show notes
• 1:29
  down below, or description if you're watching this on YouTube, and you
• 1:32
  can see what we've been talking about and all that wonderful stuff.
• 1:35
  You can see what sustainable seafood is all about and learn how to do it
• 1:38
  without a PhD. That's the big thing.
• 1:40
  It's just for everybody that wants to learn more about how to order
• 1:44
  sustainable seafood and understand what sustainable seafood is.
• 1:47
  So now let's go back to this, devices,
• 1:49
  these fisheries devices.
• 1:51
  \ Now you've heard that shrimp nets drown sea turtles, that fishing lines strangle
• 1:56
  whales, that dolphins die in tuna nets.
• 1:59
  They drown, So every time you buy seafood, there's a background guilt a little bit.
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  What else got caught as this fish was getting caught
• 2:07
  that I'm about to eat today?
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  But today, I wanna swap that guilt for something more useful, knowing some
• 2:12
  of the fixes that have been working and how to find seafood caught with
• 2:17
  them, that's an important aspect.
• 2:19
  Early in my career, I worked as a marine mammal observer, and I
• 2:22
  learned quickly that what happens on the back deck of a boat is only
• 2:25
  known if someone is there to see it.
• 2:28
  if I'm not there, if I wasn't there as a fisheries observer or as a marine
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  mammal observer, the people that are doing the seismic survey the boat
• 2:35
  that I was on Are probably not gonna stop, with the guns when these marine
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  mammals come into the radius of the boat where they could be affected by
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  the noise of the acoustic guns that are happening with the seismic survey.
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  Same thing with a fisheries observer, it's difficult to find out what's
• 2:50
  happening and understanding how things are being caught, what bycatch is
• 2:54
  being caught or anything like that.
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  Now, bycatch is anything caught that the fisher wasn't trying to catch in
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  the first place, and that happens a lot with trawl fishing, the one conservation
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  scientists like worry about the most are endangered, threatened, and protected
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  species, so sea turtles, sharks, sea birds like albatross, whales, and
• 3:13
  dolphins of course in the marine mammal section, they're usually swimming near
• 3:17
  the target fish 'cause they're eating the same food and using the same water.
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  And so sometimes when they see fish aggregated in one area, they're
• 3:25
  gonna go and start feeding on them, but the net or the line doesn't know
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  the difference between these fish.
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  Although there are like net sizes, mesh sizes for the nets that allow
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  some of the smaller animals to go out so they don't catch juveniles and some
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  of the bycatch that are smaller, and they only catch the larger fish, but
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  when you have sea turtles or whales or dolphins or, anything else like that,
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  it's really hard to not catch those,
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  Because they're bigger and they'll get caught in the net Now, one of the things
• 3:53
  we've discussed a number of times on here is the North Atlantic right whale.
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  It's one of the most endangered whales on the planet.
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  Scientists estimate there's 384 of them alive at the end of 2024.
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  Now, I talked about this on Ocean Decoded.
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  We have seen an increase for the first time.
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  I think it was like 23 offspring this year, and so it's the first time in a long
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  time where we've seen an increase, but it's still dire need for these species.
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  And people often ask how a whale can be caught in a lobster trap.
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  It's not a net by any means, But the danger is the rope, every trap or every
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  string of traps has a line running, from the sea floor up to a buoy on the surface.
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  Off of New England and Atlantic Canada, there are a huge number of those vertical
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  lines in the water, and the right whales feed in the same areas where these
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  lobster traps are and crab traps are.
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  A whale, like, swims into the line, it wraps it around its flipper,
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  or it gets caught or the fluke, like the tail, or even the mouth.
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  Sometimes it goes right around the mouth.
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  And some will drown because they can't get up to the surface because
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  they're caught in so many lines.
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  And then some are just so badly injured that as they drag the net, they get
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  entangled, and then the line starts to, cut into their pectoral fins or
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  their mouths or anything like that.
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  Those cuts get infected, some of them, they drag, like, heavy gear behind
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  them for months and months and months.
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  So entanglement and ship strikes tend to be, like, the two leading causes of
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  death or serious injury of the species, of the North Atlantic right whale.
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  in September 2022, Seafood Watch, which is, like, an app that you can use for
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  sustainable fishing, and it tells you what to avoid and what to take or what you
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  can eat and how it's caught and all that kind of stuff to ask the right question.
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  They moved American lobster from the US and Canada to its red,
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  quote-unquote, "avoid list."
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  Basically because of the risk to the right whales.
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  In December 2022, after a US federal court ruled that whale protections in the
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  fishery didn't go far enough, the Marine Stewardship Council suspended the Gulf
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  of Maine lobster fishery certification.
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  And the independent auditor noted it had found no direct evidence that
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  Maine's fishery had harmed right whales.
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  But the suspension came because the legal protections around
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  it had been found inadequate.
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  So the lobster fishery itself, is well-managed.
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  It's considered it's well-managed.
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  But the problem is the rope that is attached to the trap that goes up to
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  the surface to the buoy, that's the problem Now, this got pretty political.
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  Like within weeks, Maine's congressional delegation introduced a bill to block
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  federal funding to the Monterey Bay Aquarium, which runs Seafood Watch.
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  So they wanted to stop Seafood Watch from working, which is probably the best thing
• 6:29
  we can have for a sustainable seafood app.
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  Marine Stewardship Council has sustainable seafood, but it's not
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  really an app, it's more they work with the supply chain and the retailers.
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  But then Congress paused right whale rules for the lobster fishery until 2028.
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  And in September 2026, the House voted to extend that pause to 2035.
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  So lobster families are facing, warmer water, shifting stocks, and rising costs,
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  and their frustration is pretty real.
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  Like, I get it.
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  And the whales still need that fixed.
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  So there are two options to how to fix this.
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  We can do a weak rope, which are lines strong enough to, haul traps, but weak
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  enough to snap when a 50-ton whale basically hits them or goes through them.
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  And if a whale hits your line, you lose that gear either way.
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  So, at one point, weak ropes means, the whale doesn't lose its life too.
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  You're already gonna lose your gear, but because the whale's going
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  through it, but what can you do?
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  Now, the other option is something that's growing in demand, is
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  that on-demand or ropeless gear.
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  So no line sitting in the water.
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  The trap waits at the bottom with a lift bag or like some kind of spooled line.
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  When the boat arrives, to grab the trap, it sends an acoustic signal,
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  and the trap rises to the surface.
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  and when it first came out, I remember talking to fishers.
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  They disliked it because it was expensive, it was new, and it didn't work very well.
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  But it's different from how lobsters had been fishing for generations,
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  and nobody loves that type of change.
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  So I can understand that.
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  But a growing number of fishers in the US and Canada are testing it.
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  And because some of the crab and lobster fishery has shut down in
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  certain areas, especially where right whales are known to go, they start
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  to embrace it a little bit more.
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  And so grants are helping to cover the cost, and the gear keeps getting
• 8:09
  better and better with each trial.
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  So, some people are gonna be like, "Hey, this actually might work
• 8:12
  eventually." Now, let's move over to the sea turtle bit that I talked
• 8:17
  about at the beginning of the episode.
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  Sea turtles, of course, breathe air, A turtle caught in a shrimp
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  net, like that's dragged around for an hour or more will drown.
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  It can't get to the surface.
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  Although it can hold its breath for a long time, it's something that's
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  really important for them to do is to get up there so they can breathe.
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  Now, the fix for this is called a turtle excluder device, or a TED.
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  Not the speeches, not like the TEDx or anything like that.
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  Not online.
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  This is a TED, a turtle excluder device.
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  It's basically like a metal grid sewn onto the neck of the net, so like at the
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  part of the net where it kinda extends.
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  and it has an escape flap.
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  So the small shrimp pass through the bars into the bag at the end,
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  which is great, and a turtle's too big to fit through that bag.
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  So it hits the grid, slides along it, and b- gets pushed out through the flap.
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  So if used correctly, TEDs cut sea turtle deaths and shrimp deaths by
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  about 97%, and the shrimp catch, they don't change that much.
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  And that's why it works really well.
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  The fix has saved pretty much every turtle, but empty
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  the net would never be used.
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  But the thing is, the TED works.
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  for years there was a gap.
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  Smaller shrimp boats using a type of net called a skimmer trawl were
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  allowed to fish without TEDs, on the condition that they limited how long
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  each of the nets stayed in the water.
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  Observers found that rule was often ignored.
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  In some years, fewer than thirty-five percent of the monitored tows
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  stayed within that time limit.
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  So in twenty nineteen, the US government required TEDs on skimmer trawls for
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  boats that were forty feet or longer.
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  and Louisiana Shrimpers group, they sued.
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  On August 28th, twenty twenty-six, the Fifth US Circuit Court of Appeals
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  unanimously upheld the rule, finding the agency had given a rational,
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  evidence-backed explanation.
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  And Louisiana waters are prime feeding ground for Kemp Ridleys, these are the
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  most critically endangered sea turtles.
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  And Lou- and its waters are prime feeding grounds for Kemp Ridley
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  sea turtles, the world's smallest and most endangered sea turtle.
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  Those turtles now have a trapdoor.
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  I want you to notice, like, the pattern here.
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  Like a loophole for small boats will look harmless because each boat is small.
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  And you add up a lot of small boats, and you get a pretty big problem.
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  And if they're not following the rules, then you get a bigger problem.
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  So the court followed the data, made its ruling, and now we're gonna start to
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  see TEDs that's going to be included for the skimmer nets in shallower waters.
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  And also, like I should mention in this story, is that the federal
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  data with observers was very different than the state data.
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  The state data did not show any changes or show a lot of sea turtles drowning from
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  these catches from these skimmer trawls.
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  But the federal data from the observers did.
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  So that's a very interesting, change in data.
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  And so the, the Louisiana Shrimp Trawlers Association was asking to follow the
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  state data when the federal data had more.
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  It was like three thousand, sea turtles that died within those nets.
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  So it was quite a difference and change, and the courts went with the federal
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  data just to be on the safe side to make sure, 'cause it was such a big miss,
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  let's talk about dolphin safe tuna, 'cause that's something
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  that's really interesting.
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  It's a question I get a lot.
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  You've probably seen the dolphin safe logo on a canned tuna, and
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  here's what it actually covers.
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  So in the eastern tropical Pacific, tuna often swim under dolphins.
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  Fishers used to spot dolphins, then set like huge purse seine nets around the
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  whole group to catch like the tuna below,
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  'cause once they saw dolphins, that was where we knew where tuna was.
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  Millions of dolphins in the past died this way from the late 1950s onward.
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  Some populations fell to 20% to 30% of their original size.
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  So a huge, huge problem.
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  Now, dolphin safe means the tuna was caught without setting nets on
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  dolphins, and with no dolphins killed or seriously injured in that set.
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  Now, the one thing to learn is that it's never promised that no
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  dolphin anywhere has been harmed in any part of this fishery.
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  Critics who found a dead dolphin near a dolphin safe fishery and called the
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  label meaningless were dredging it against a promise that it never made.
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  and the thing is, is like reported dolphin deaths in that fishery
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  dropped from hundreds of thousands a year to roughly a thousand.
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  And some of those dolphin populations are showing early signs of recovery.
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  That's a huge win in this case.
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  Like obviously, nets aren't perfect, this fishery isn't perfect, and
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  we're gonna have some dolphin deaths.
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  But to go from 100,000 deaths or hundreds of thousands of deaths a year to roughly
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  a thousand, that's a huge win for conservation and for the fishery as well.
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  Now, every number that I've mentioned in this episode depends on someone
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  counting, so if you ask the boat to count its own bycatch, there's a
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  built-in incentive to report less.
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  There's a bias there.
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  that's why there are fisheries observers.
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  They're independent, it's a great experience for young biologists, and
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  often one that is the best paying job straight out of a marine biology degree.
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  But it also can be dangerous.
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  So all you young scientists here, I want you to make sure you do your research on
• 13:13
  what to expect, how to live on a boat, understand what it's like to live with
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  other fishers, because it's different out there on the ocean, there are a lot of
• 13:22
  protections, and a lot of these fisheries boats are happy to have these observers.
• 13:27
  An observer is often the only person aboard, who doesn't work for that boat to
• 13:31
  make money for that boat, and some people might look at that as saying, "Hey, you're
• 13:35
  actually gonna prevent us from making money." So you just have to be careful.
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  But the Association for Professional Observers has documented more than a
• 13:42
  dozen observers who died or disappeared at sea in unclear circumstances since 2009,
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  mostly in the Pacific tuna fisheries.
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  Now, these cases are rare, extremely rare in North America,
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  and it still happens elsewhere.
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  So if you're going somewhere other than North America, be very, very like careful.
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  Now, there is something that's coming out that's emerging.
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  That's the electronic monitoring.
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  So high-definitions cameras on deck, footage reviewed by
• 14:07
  analysts on shore, which is great.
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  Studies suggest that it can cost 15 to 50% less than a human observer.
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  And fishers often like the gadgets, of course, and the camera doesn't
• 14:18
  like need a bunk or a special type of meal, so it's cheaper for them.
• 14:22
  So the next time you buy tuna, look for a pole and line, or
• 14:26
  a troll or, hand line caught.
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  In a pole and line fishery, a crew stands at the rail and catches tuna one at a
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  time with rods, it's loud, it's chaotic, it catches almost nothing except tuna.
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  And it's usually printed right on the can, so if it isn't, your
• 14:42
  Seafood Guide app will tell you which brands tend to use that.
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  But every fix in this episode comes down to the gear.
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  When you choose the gear, you choose the bycatch.
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  So if there's pole and line, you get less bycatch.
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  If you have purse seine nets that are dolphin-safe, you tend to get
• 14:58
  less dolphins caught in these tuna nets, In these purse seine nets.
• 15:01
  So it's important.
• 15:02
  Tomorrow's episode, we're gonna be talking about the fishing
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  method from a famous documentary that wants it banned everywhere.
• 15:09
  And the protected areas that aren't protected, and the fish farms
• 15:12
  you're probably already eating from.
• 15:14
  So we're gonna talk a lot about that on next episode.
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  It's gonna be a very interesting episode.
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  don't forget to follow so you can tune in.
• 15:22
  but I want you to think about this, like-
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  the boat hauls in a net, like a shrimp, and the bag is full of shrimp.
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  And a few minutes earlier, out of sight, like a Kemp Ridley slid along a metal grid
• 15:33
  and swam out through a flap and, like, maybe a little bruised, but it's alive.
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  And that's the important thing.
• 15:40
  Seafood and sea turtles can share the same water,
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  They do, 'cause a lot of times these, Kemp Ridley's turtles are
• 15:46
  actually eating these shrimp.
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  But better nets make it possible to ensure that these sea turtles are
• 15:52
  protected, and we already have them.
• 15:54
  We're already using them, and now they're being applied to more
• 15:57
  boats from a different variety, and I think that's a great thing.
• 16:00
  We're saving more species by doing this.
• 16:02
  It's all about fisheries management.
• 16:04
  It's all about data driving this and the science that drives it to ensure that the
• 16:08
  law can uphold everything that happens.
• 16:11
  This is how we do fisheries management.
• 16:13
  This is how we do ocean conservation, and this is what you just learned
• 16:17
  on how to protect the ocean.
• 16:18
  I wanna thank you so much for joining me.
• 16:20
  If you're watching or if you're listening to this on Spotify,
• 16:23
  there's a comment section.
• 16:24
  Please like, send me a comment.
• 16:26
  I'd love to hear what you thought of the episode.
• 16:28
  If you're watching this on YouTube, you can do the same thing in
• 16:29
  the comments below and there's information in the description.
• 16:33
  And of course, if you're listening to this on your favorite podcast
• 16:35
  app, hit me up in my socials.
• 16:37
  The links are in the show notes.
• 16:39
  I'd love to hear from you.
• 16:40
  Thank you so much for joining me on today's episode of the How
• 16:42
  to Protect the Ocean podcast.
• 16:44
  I'm your host, Andrew Lewin.
• 16:45
  Have a great day.
• 16:45
  We'll talk to you next time, and happy conservation.