An article in the Washington Post highlights a problem many initially attributed to the Deepwater Horizon oil spill-- hundreds of sea turtles, mainly Kemp's Ridleys (Lepidochelys kempii), are washing ashore dead along the Gulf coast. In 2010, 600 sea turtles washed ashore, this year 563 have been found. After completing necropsies on almost all of the 2010 turtles and some of this year's turtles, there is evidence that they were caught in shrimp nests, where they drowned.
The shrimp fishery is required to use turtle excluder devices, also known as TEDs, in their nets. Use of TEDs became mandatory in the 1990s. Emails obtained by Oceana from the National Oceanic and Atmospheric Administration suggest that in many cases TEDs were not used, and if they were, they were not installed correctly. When installed correctly, they are 97% effective.
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