One of the major threats to marine turtles in the marine environment is incidental capture, injury, and mortality during fishing operations. Of the many fishing methods used around the world, trawling is one of the more destructive and has been responsible for many turtles drowning after being trapped in a trawl net.
To attempt to reduce the amount of turtles caught as bycatch by trawlers something called a Turtle Excluder Device (TED) was developed. Simply put, the TED is a metal grill placed in front of the trawl bag which allows small marine life (the intended catch) such as prawns to enter but blocks the passage of larger animals such as sea turtles. A flap beside the TED allows the animal to escape.
