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US bans Mexico shrimp on sea turtle concerns
The United States has moved to formally ban the import of Mexican shrimp caught with trawl fishing methods that may affect sea turtles, the US State Department said on Thursday.
Loggerhead Sea Turtle escaping from a net via TED device
US Department of State | U.S. Withdraws Mexican Shrimp Importation Certification Under Sea Turtle Protection Law | 12-26-2011
Mexico is losing its certification to export wild-harvest shrimp to the United States because its trawls lack required protections for endangered sea turtles.
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The US State Department said the certification was withdrawn after the U.S. National Marine Fisheries Service determined that Mexico's turtle excluder devices no longer meet U.S. standards. U.S. rules require that exporters use excluders comparable to those used by American shrimpers.
A turtle excluder device or TED is a specialized device that allows a captured sea turtle to escape when caught in a fisherman's net.
In particular, sea turtles can be caught when bottom trawling is used by the commercial shrimp fishing industry. In order to catch shrimp, a fine meshed trawl net is needed. This results in large amounts of other marine organisms being also caught as bycatch. When a turtle gets caught or entangled in a trawl net, it becomes trapped and is unable to return to the surface. Since sea turtles are air-breathing creatures with lungs, they eventually drown.
Primary source â–ş U.S. Withdraws Mexican Shrimp Importation Certification Under Sea Turtle Protection Law
Further reading â–ş Turtle excluder device (Wikipedia)
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