By Lily Auliff
Last year, 385 sick, injured, or dead sea turtles washed up onto Texas beaches, according to the National Marine Fisheries Service. Eighty-three of these saltwater reptiles were Kemp’s Ridley sea turtles, the most endangered type. 
Most sea turtle biologists believe that shrimp boats and fishing methods account for the great majority of sea turtle deaths in Texas, according to a 1998 report produced by the National Oceanic & Atmospheric Administration. To make the state’s shrimp industry more sustainable, and to protect sea turtles during nesting season, Texas Parks and Wildlife (TPW) adopted a new set of shrimping regulations last fall.
Most significant for sea turtle conservation is a ban on shrimping from the beach to five nautical miles out between Corpus Christi and the Texas-Mexico border. This area will now be closed annually from December 1 to July 15.
Although this measure helps, it is not enough, says Carole Allen of Help Endangered Animals Ridley Turtles (HEART). “We need strict enforcement to catch any shrimper inside the closure zone and anyone without a correctly installed Turtle Exclusion Device.” Turtle Exclusion Devices, or TEDs, allow turtles to escape from trawls and have been required on all shrimp boats longer than 25 feet since the early 1990s.
Allen is concerned that TPW does not have the resources to adequately enforce their new regulations. To help, she has launched the HEART Shrimp Net. Beach visitors between Corpus and South Padre are instructed to call TPW’s Operation Game Thief at 1-800-792-4263 to report shrimpers that are violating the regulations. “If you can see a shrimp boat from the shore, day or night, it is very likely this boat is fishing illegally inside the five mile closure area,” says Allen.
Two measures, House Bill 937 and Senate Bill 810, are also threatening the new regulations, says Allen. Both bills, which limit the power of TPW’s control over the shrimping industry, are currently in committee. Allen hopes they will die there, but still encourages citizens to let their representatives know that sea turtle protection is important.
Unlike their land-roving counterparts, sea turtles have streamlined bodies and flipper-like legs, which allow them to swim at relatively high speeds.
These large reptiles – ranging in weight from 80 pounds to more than 1,400 pounds – live most of their lives in the ocean. Adult females return to land between March and July to lay their eggs. Scientists believe they come back to the same beach on which they were born.
A female lays about 100 eggs in each nest, but only one in 1,000 to 10,000 will survive to adulthood. Natural predators, from raccoons to crabs to ants, attack the eggs and hatchlings in the nest. Birds and larger sea creatures threaten young turtles once they reach the ocean.
But the real threat to sea turtle populations comes from human activity. Most countries forbid consumption of sea turtle eggs and meat, and the sale of products made from turtle shells, but poaching remains a problem. Ingestion of debris and poisons has caused the death of many individual animals. Beachfront development can block nesting sites, and artificial lighting can confuse baby turtles who instinctively head for the shiny reflections of the sea. And young turtles must swim though a maze of fishing trawls to make it from the beach to deep water.
All five species of sea turtles in Texas are protected under the Endangered Species Act.
Visit the NOAA/NMFS Sea Turtle Facility in Galveston, a research laboratory dedicated to raising threatened and endangered sea turtles in captivity, to see these interesting creatures up close. Call 409-766-3670 to schedule a tour.