Call for ban on prawn nets that kill turtles

OUR fondness for prawns is resulting in the deaths of thousands of turtles each year, marine experts warn.

The turtles, including some endangered species, die after becoming trapped in the nets used to catch prawns.

Now The World Wide Fund For Nature is calling for guards to be fitted to the nets used to trawl for wild prawns, to prevent the turtles getting caught.

Nearly half the prawns imported by the UK are caught in the wild, most of these from trawlers off the coasts of Bangladesh, India and Vietnam.

But the WWF estimates nearly 30,000 turtles – including green, loggerhead and the critically endangered hawksbill – die each year to feed demand for prawns in the UK and the rest of the EU.

The US has for nearly 30 years banned prawn imports from countries that do not use turtle excluder devices – metal grids that let prawns enter the nets but keep out larger marine creatures, cutting turtle deaths by 97 per cent. As a result they are used in Mexico and Costa Rica.

Dr Lyndsey Dodds, WWF head of marine policy, said: ‘People in the UK will be shocked to hear that eating one of their favourite types of seafood might be contributing to the needless deaths of threatened turtles.’