Battle to Save Sea Turtles

Turtles are the oldest reptiles on Earth, lethargic in fable, yet surprisingly graceful in reality. These lumbering, air-breathing, peaceful creatures are unlikely candidates for controversy. Yet, the languid sea turtles are the focus of a delicate political and economic ballet involving the U.S. shrimping industry, the U.S. Department of Commerce and environmentalists--a ballet that demonstrates a growing clash between protecting endangered species and maintaining precarious marine industries.

In the Southern Atlantic, including waters off the southeastern United States, about 250 million pounds of shrimp valued at $466 million were caught in 1988, according to a spokesman for the Commerce Department. They were caught by 18,000 commercial trawlers, including 7,000 deep-water offshore vessels that deploy their nets along the ocean bottom.

Unfortunately, sea turtles also travel at these depths in search of crabs and other edibles. According to the National Marine Fisheries Service, 45,000 sea turtles a year become trapped in the shrimp nets. Of these, many escape or are released, but about 11,000 drown.

To make matters more complicated, the peak summer shrimping season in this region coincides with the peak turtle nesting season. At this time, female sea turtles crawl onto beaches to lay tiny eggs that are then left to be incubated in the warm sand. Consequently, a turtle caught and drowned during the summer may well be a breeding female.

Turtle Exclusion Device

Recognizing the problem, the U.S. government in 1978 sought a technological solution that would protect turtles while minimizing interference with the shrimping business. The result was development of a Turtle Exclusion Device (TED). There are several types, but the simplest is a grill-like screen that fits over the opening of a shrimp net, allowing turtles to bounce harmlessly off.

TEDs have been deemed critical by environmentalists and others because several species of sea turtle caught in shrimp nets are protected under the Endangered Species Act, particularly the Kemp’s Ridley Sea Turtle. There were once perhaps as many as 80,000 adult females of this species--in 1947, 40,000 females were observed nesting in a single day! Yet due to overhunting for meat and shell, estimates say there are fewer than 1,000 breeding females alive today.

The shrimping industry, however, argues that TEDs hurt their business because they take precious time to deploy and damage expensive nets by catching extra grass and debris. (The Commerce Department estimates that roughly 5% of gross income is lost to fishermen through use of TEDs, although the agency says fishermen highly skilled in their use can cut the loss to 2% or 3%.)

Federal regulations imposing mandatory use of TEDs on U.S.-flagged ships were to go into effect last May 1. However, the Commerce Department announced it would phase in the requirements by issuing warnings for the first 60 days. In July, angry shrimpers blockaded Galveston and other harbors in Texas, threatening an escalation of violence at a fishery already riddled with ethnic tension between newly arrived Vietnamese shrimpers and their American counterparts.

The secretary of commerce then further postponed the TED requirement to Sept. 8. He did require, however, that shrimpers pull up their nets every 105 minutes to check for trapped turtles. This is the time estimated by some scientists--and at best an educated guess because thorough research is difficult--that turtles can survive underwater without breathing.

In shallow waters, shrimpers must pull up their nets regularly anyway to clear debris, but deep-water trawlers can work for three to five hours without hauling in.

Clock Starts at Midnight

The U.S. Coast Guard is charged with enforcement, and starts its clock each day at midnight. Any nets found in the water at improper intervals are assumed to be out of compliance. Fines to ship owners range from $8,000-$12,000 for each violation.

Throughout this controversy, the Commerce Department has walked a tightrope between the Endangered Species Act and the shrimping industry. Indeed, in a letter to a concerned congressman, Secretary Robert A. Mosbacher called the act a “legal straitjacket.” He also wrote, “I made a commitment to balance the commercial interests of the shrimping industry with the legal requirement of the TED enforcement structure.”

I do not want to see the shrimping industry die. Nor do I want the issue sidestepped by having shrimpers change the registry of their ships to other countries. I understand that shrimping equipment represents great investments of money and time, and that fishing worldwide has become highly competitive. But a standoff is no solution.

The dilemma could present a creative opportunity. Why not a financial formula to offset shrimpers’ losses? For example, perhaps the 5% loss figure could be mitigated by cash incentives offered to shrimpers for a catch based on quality rather than quantity. Or through tax advantages to shrimpers who willingly use TEDs. Thus, costs of compliance would be distributed, the law would work, and a constructive model would be created that might be implemented by other nations faced with similar conflicts.

The fact remains that sea turtles worldwide are seriously threatened or endangered. Under the best conditions, only 1% to 5% survive their first year of life, often falling to natural predators even before they reach the sea from their sandy nests on the beach. And lately, turtle hatchlings--which normally head instinctively for the ocean after birth--are being attracted instead to the lights of increased coastal development, thus walking to their deaths.

The U.S. shrimping industry may have little extra margin. But with their lives measured down to the minute, and their numbers cut by the tens of thousands, neither do the turtles.