the warm waters off the Gulf of Mexico
are home to many different kinds of
endangered sea turtles one species the
Kemp’s ridley sea turtle is still very
much in danger of extinction but the
population is making a gradual rebound
thanks in part to a group of marine
researchers and Texas marine biologist
Sean Owen Baker says has the smallest
species of sea turtle in the world the
Kemp’s ridley needs all the help it can
get they’re an integral part of the
ecosystem they’ve been around for
millions and millions years ever since
the dinosaur and really it’s the humans
fault why we why they are their numbers
are going down and we have sort of a
responsibility to make up for that the
turtle population along the Gulf Coast
is making its comeback thanks in part to
the invention of a new technology for
fishing nets called the te D or turtle
excluder device this is the actual
turtle excluder device right here how
this works is this funnel shape over
here is called an accelerator funnel and
what it does is it passes a large
quantity of water through a small area
and that causes the water to be moving
really fast it starts a current through
here so everything is being pushed
through this area up against these bars
anything smaller than the spaces between
these bars like shrimp and small fish go
through the bars and on towards the back
of the net where they’re caught in the
back anything larger than the spaces
between these bars it was designed for
turtles but it also works for sharks and
large fish because the current is
pushing on them and the bars are kind of
slanted it pushes them down towards this
opening here in the bottom this flap
right here will be held shut by the
water pressure but as soon as anything
gets down inside there it opens it up in
the turtle can escape and go up to the
top to breathe and then the flap will
close behind them in the past
turtles were often caught in a variety
of fishing nets and while the problem
still exists today u.s. shrimp fishermen
are now required by law to use the new
device some fishermen who used the
device complain that having holes in
their nets can cause them to lose a
significant percentage of their catch
but biologists say the new nets
can also work in the fisherman’s phaser
they generally would catch more shrimp
throughout the season because this
doesn’t just exclude the occasional
turtle it excludes anything large in the
back of their necks so they can pull
their nets for a lot longer before they
fill up and they get a higher percentage
of actual shrimp that they can keep each
time biologists at this facility are
putting a lot of Hope in the success of
the turtle excluder device but they’ve
also developed other research efforts
that have boosted the ridley population
like captive breeding with every healthy
turtle the species is one small step
farther from extinction
are home to many different kinds of
endangered sea turtles one species the
Kemp’s ridley sea turtle is still very
much in danger of extinction but the
population is making a gradual rebound
thanks in part to a group of marine
researchers and Texas marine biologist
Sean Owen Baker says has the smallest
species of sea turtle in the world the
Kemp’s ridley needs all the help it can
get they’re an integral part of the
ecosystem they’ve been around for
millions and millions years ever since
the dinosaur and really it’s the humans
fault why we why they are their numbers
are going down and we have sort of a
responsibility to make up for that the
turtle population along the Gulf Coast
is making its comeback thanks in part to
the invention of a new technology for
fishing nets called the te D or turtle
excluder device this is the actual
turtle excluder device right here how
this works is this funnel shape over
here is called an accelerator funnel and
what it does is it passes a large
quantity of water through a small area
and that causes the water to be moving
really fast it starts a current through
here so everything is being pushed
through this area up against these bars
anything smaller than the spaces between
these bars like shrimp and small fish go
through the bars and on towards the back
of the net where they’re caught in the
back anything larger than the spaces
between these bars it was designed for
turtles but it also works for sharks and
large fish because the current is
pushing on them and the bars are kind of
slanted it pushes them down towards this
opening here in the bottom this flap
right here will be held shut by the
water pressure but as soon as anything
gets down inside there it opens it up in
the turtle can escape and go up to the
top to breathe and then the flap will
close behind them in the past
turtles were often caught in a variety
of fishing nets and while the problem
still exists today u.s. shrimp fishermen
are now required by law to use the new
device some fishermen who used the
device complain that having holes in
their nets can cause them to lose a
significant percentage of their catch
but biologists say the new nets
can also work in the fisherman’s phaser
they generally would catch more shrimp
throughout the season because this
doesn’t just exclude the occasional
turtle it excludes anything large in the
back of their necks so they can pull
their nets for a lot longer before they
fill up and they get a higher percentage
of actual shrimp that they can keep each
time biologists at this facility are
putting a lot of Hope in the success of
the turtle excluder device but they’ve
also developed other research efforts
that have boosted the ridley population
like captive breeding with every healthy
turtle the species is one small step
farther from extinction
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