Good News from Gulf Waters

Posted: 01-Nov-2001; Updated: 24-Jul-2007

This summer, about 600 newly hatched Kemp's ridley sea turtles on South Texas beaches began a perilous march to the sea. The odds for survival for the two-inch hatchlings are thin. During the last century, Kemp's ridley populations plummeted because adult turtles and their eggs were harvested for human consumption. Poaching has declined, but the endangered turtles now suffer from entanglement and drowning in shrimp trawl nets.

With help from Environmental Defense, the Texas Parks and Wildlife Commission last December implemented better protections for sea turtles by moving shrimp boats to deep water during the turtle mating and nesting season.

Early results are extremely encouraging. The number of nests found at major turtle nesting sites in northern Mexico has increased dramatically, and turtle deaths from entanglement in nets are down nearly 20% this year.

Meanwhile, the Gulf shrimp catch has remained strong with some shrimpers reporting their best catches in a decade. The conservation measures can benefit the $600 million shrimp industry by allowing juvenile shrimp in protected shallow waters to spawn and grow larger.

"It's too early to draw conclusions," says our fisheries biologist Pamela Baker, who helped write the new rules. "But initial indications are that the new protections will help the shrimp industry and sea turtles prosper together."