Dear Center Supporter,
Last year more than 3,500 sea turtles turned up dead or injured in the Gulf of Mexico and southeast Atlantic after getting tangled in shrimp trawling nets. Now the National Marine Fisheries Service has proposed protections for the ancient turtles that would require escape hatches in those nets.
The new rules would close a deadly loophole that allows thousands of endangered sea turtles to be caught by shrimp boats each year -- boats that aren't now required to use "turtle excluder devices."
Thanks to an agreement between the Center for Biological Diversity, its allies and the Fisheries Service, the proposed regulation would require TEDs in skimmer trawls -- fishing equipment, used primarily in bays and estuaries, that is currently exempt from using the turtle-saving devices.
TEDs could have prevented thousands of deaths in 2010 and 2011. Please, act now to tell the Fisheries Service TEDs must be required. Let's stop the needless drowning of sea turtles.
If you have trouble following the link, go to http://action.biologicaldiversity.org/p/dia/action/public/?action_KEY=11031.
Please take action by July 9, 2012.
Donate now to support our work.
For more information, visit our Fisheries Web page.
Photo of green sea turtle courtesy Flickr Commons/NOAA.
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Center for Biological Diversity
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P.O. Box 710
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Tucson, AZ 85702
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1-866-357-3349
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