December 16, 2016 — The federal government is tightening rules that make many shrimping boats use devices that keep sea turtles from dying in their nets.
The new rules could eventually save 2,500 turtles per year, said an announcement being published Friday in the Federal Register.
The change was made to settle a lawsuit that the activist environmental group Oceana filed last year, claiming old rules violated the Endangered Species Act by not addressing some deaths caused by shrimping in southeastern states.
Many shrimpers have used safety equipment called turtle-excluder devices for decades, but others have been exempt from rules requiring them. The new rules require the devices on skimmer trawls, pusher-head trawls and butterfly trawls, except for boats doing a different, shallow type of fishing in Miami’s Biscayne Bay.
The new rules are expected to affect about 5,800 boats.
On the Atlantic coast, the rules are projected to cost owners of affected boats an average of $1,365 in the first year, more than $1,200 of that being the cost of TED equipment.
The changes “may be a necessary and advisable action to conserve threatened and endangered sea turtle species,” the National Oceanic and Atmospheric Administration said in announcing the new rules.
All sea turtles in America’s coastal waters are considered either endangered or threatened.
The rule changes are targeted at shrimpers in the South.