Stop the Sea Turtle Massacre

by Teri Shore, Earth Island Institute, Sea Turtle Restoration Project

Sea turtle activists have demanded an emergency closure of Texas shrimp fisheries and offered a $5,000 reward for the capture of those responsible for a rash of drownings and mutilations of endangered sea turtles. The sea turtle killings in early November coincided with the peak of shrimping season in the Gulf of Mexico.

Earth Island Institute, Humane Society of the United States (HSUS) and Houston-based Helping Endangered Animals-Ridley Turtles (HEART), is demanded the closure after 18 sea turtles washed up dead in one week, mostly along Padre Island National Seashore. Of these, nine sea turtles were found with decapitated heads and/or flippers sliced-off with straight-edged cuts, indicating intentional harm and blatant violations of the Endangered Species Act. The occurrence of these mutilations during the shrimp fishing season, is a decades-old trend pointing to outlaw shrimpers as the perpetrators of these atrocities. "Every year during shrimp season, we see turtles washing up dead with their head and flippers chopped off, yet this never occurs during the Texas closed season," said Carole Allen, executive director of Houston-based HEART.

The shrimp industry is devastating to sea turtle populations because shrimp nets often pull in both shrimp and turtles. Though required by law to use turtle excluder devices (TED's) to prevent turtles from being caught, shrimpers wrongly believe the TED's lower their shrimp harvest. Many shrimpers illegally deactivate their TED's and then mutilate captured turtles to prevent detection. "We believe shrimpers do this in the hopes of attracting sharks to the bloody carcass who will eat the evidence," said Allen. "This sinking of dead turtles is just another strategy to hide their bloody and inhumane actions."

Dismantling TED's is common in the industry. An undercover study by HSUS, released in spring 1997, documented a 41-percent non-compliance rate in Texas waters. TED's are metal grates in the mouth of the net that allows 97 percent or more of all turtles to escape when properly used. Nearly 500 dead turtles have washed ashore in Texas this year and more than 2,000 have died in US waters from the Gulf of Mexico to the Atlantic coast.

Sea turtles live in the same shallow, warm waters where the shrimp industry trawls the coastline year after year. Some shrimpers seem to be bloodthirsty for turtle meat. During the HSUS investigation, one shrimper was audio taped admitting that he not only ties his TED's shut, but he also mutilates and kills endangered sea turtles.

Denials and Delays Thwart Protection Efforts

The shrimp industry continues to flatly deny links between shrimpers and dead sea turtles. In Texas media reports, Wilma Anderson of the Texas Shrimp Association blamed park rangers at Padre Island for mutilating the sea turtles and trying to frame shrimpers. "You can't shut down the shrimping industry based on allegations. This is America," Anderson said in a report published in the Corpus Christi Caller-Times. "Besides, there's no documentation showing shrimpers are responsible for these mutilations. We get blamed for killing turtles, red snapper, sea grass, and now they're trying to say we're all a bunch of heroin addicts."

The heroin remark referred to the recent overdoses by four seasonal shrimpers in Aransas Pass. In the same Corpus Christi newspaper, a spokesman for the Texas Seafood Producers Association said that he didn't know any shrimpers who would intentionally hurt a sea turtle. Sea turtle activists wish this were true. "Who's going to fuck with me," the shrimper challenged. "Where I go, yeah . . . I get 'em . . . and cut their fucking head off." He claimed that many other shrimpers he knows also tie their TED's shut. In one 1994 letter to the editor, a shrimper wrote, "Get rid of the Ridleys, convert them to turtle soup."

Enforcement Efforts Not Enough

With few resources, National Marine Fisheries Service (NMFS) officials have been ineffective in proving the turtle/industry connection and slowing the Texas sea turtle massacre. NMFS has offered its own $5,000 rewards-one for the chained sea turtles and a second for the mutilations. Enforcement agents are interviewing shrimpers and searching for the offenders, who could face criminal penalties of up to $50,000 and jail sentences. But no shrimper has ever been caught or punished for these types of crimes.

For decades, NMFS has sided with shrimpers and helped delay the implementation of TED use. This bias is reflected in the ludicrous denials about the recent sea turtle mutilations.

"I don't think anyone can look at a turtle with a cut and determine just by looking that it was human induced," said Chuck Oravetz of NFMS in a Houston Chronicle article. "It could have been a clean shark bite." Sharks have jagged teeth and leave gaping holes. Knives have straight edges that slice. Has a new species of shark evolved in Texas that has square jaws and leaves straight cuts?

Fisheries agents claim that most shrimpers properly use TED's. However, most boarding inspections are done by the Coast Guard, which uses easily identifiable vessels that shrimpers know are coming long before they are boarded. On October 27, however, agents did seize 600 pounds of shrimp off a vessel that had its TED's tied shut. NMFS special agent Gene Proulx said that the shrimper is being prosecuted for a civil offense, not criminal, and that the shrimp boat is currently out on the water.

Sea Turtles In Decline

Sea turtles are ancient ocean dwellers that have survived since the era of the dinosaurs. Six of seven species of sea turtles are threatened with extinction and protected under the Endangered Species Act and international treaty. The Kemp's ridley turtle is among the top 12 most endangered animals in the world. It nests mainly at one beach in Mexico, spending most of its life along the Gulf of Mexico and the Atlantic Coast. The nesting population now totals less than one-half of one percent of historic nesting populations of 40,000.

Marine biologists are alarmed that 13 adult Kemp's ridleys were found among the carcasses of the recent strandings. Given the species current status, the loss of mature animals directly reduces already decimated populations by preventing breeding females from laying hundreds of eggs. The strandings occurred in critical beach nesting areas on Padre Island, where nine sea turtles laid eggs last year-the first such nestings ever recorded there.

Help Stop the Massacre

Shrimp trawling is the number one threat to the survival of the species, a fact confirmed in 1990 by the National Academy of Sciences. Even if we continue to protect nesting beaches around the world and stop the black market trade in tortoise shells and skin, sea turtles will continue to decline if shrimpers around the world don't change their ways.

As this story is written, the Texas shrimp fisheries remain open. Trawling has not stopped, and sea turtles wash ashore dead every day. None of the people responsible have been arrested or detained. No strong step has been taken to stop the slaughter.

If the public does not hear about this issue soon, it may be too late for the sea turtle. Even if you don't eat shrimp, nor have traveled to the areas where sea turtles live, now is the time to take a stand. If you live in Texas, please go to the beach and take photos and videos of dead turtles. Send them to us. Tell other activists what's happening. Write letters to the editor. Demand that stores stop carrying anything but certified turtle-safe shrimp. Join the Sea Turtle Restoration Project Activist Network and request an activist kit. Volunteers are badly needed to take direct action during the 1998 shrimp season in Texas. If we can't save the sea turtle, symbol of our earth, can we save the oceans, the forests and the planet?

Contact Sea Turtle Restoration Project, POB 400, Forest Knolls, CA 94933; (415) 488-0370; fax (415) 488-0372; e-mail: turtlesafe@earthisland.org; http://www.earthisland.org/strp/strpindx.html.

Demand a closure of Texas shrimp fisheries and Padre Island National Seashore. Write to:

Assistant Administrator for Fisheries, National Marine Fisheries Service, Room 14555, 1315 East-West Highway, Silver Spring, MD 20910; e-mail: schmitten@noah.gov.

William Daley, Secretary of Commerce, Herbert C. Hoover Building, Room 5862, 14th St. & Constitution, Washington DC 20230; (202) 377-2000; e-mail: WDaley@doc.gov.

Vice President Al Gore at 1600 Pennsylvania Ave., Washington, DC 20230; (202) 456-1414; fax (202) 456-2883; e-mail: vice.president@whitehouse.gov.