TED Information

Turtle Excluder Device

"The controversy and concern over the deaths of turtles in trawl nets of shrimpers and the potential effects of the proposed regulations to protect turtles on the shrimping industry then motivated Congress to amend reauthorization of the Endangered Species Act in 1988. One of the amendments to the reauthorization stipulated that a committee of the National Academy of Sciences should review the biology and behavior of the five species of sea turtles."

From "The Decline of Sea Turtles - Causes and Prevention" by the National Research Council Committee on Sea Turtle Conservation, John J. Magnuson, Chair, University of Wisconsin, 1990.

"Trawl-related mortality must be reduced to conserve sea turtle populations, especially loggerheads and Kemp's ridleys. The best method currently available (short of preventing trawling) is the use of Turtle Excluder Devices orTEDs."

The Turtle Excluder Device or TED is a grid of bars with an opening either at the top or the bottom. The grid is fitted into the neck of a shrimp trawl. Small animals like shrimp slip through the bars and are caught in the bag end of the trawl. Large animals such as turtles and sharks, when caught at the mouth of the trawl, strike the grid bars and are ejected through the opening.

Home