May 19, 2024 — National Marine Sanctuaries and Marine National Monuments protect America’s most iconic natural and cultural marine resources. These areas are home to important habitats such as breeding and feeding grounds, coral reefs, kelp forests, and important artifacts.
“Ensuring compliance within the fishing community is integral to conserving our protected marine resources. Monitoring sea turtle conservation measures is a high priority,” said Manny Antonaras, Assistant Director of NOAA’s Office of Law Enforcement, Southeast Division. “In the Southeast, we focus on protecting endangered sea turtles throughout our region, including marine sanctuaries, by monitoring for illegal fishing gear. We rely on our strong relationships with state and federal partners to aid in sea turtle focused patrols and operations such as our recent efforts.”
or the second consecutive year, NOAA’s Office of Law Enforcement organized and led a joint operation aimed at protecting endangered sea turtles in and around the Florida Keys National Marine Sanctuary. This is a key protected area in the Southeast. The operation brought together federal and state partners from NOAA’s Gear Monitoring Team, U.S. Coast Guard, and the Florida Fish and Wildlife Conservation Commission. U.S. Coast Guard personnel were new additions to this year’s training and helped expand enforcement presence during the operation. The goal was to enhance our turtle excluder device (TED) inspections that protect sea turtles and ensure commercial shrimp boats are fishing with allowable gear.