Shrimp export and sea turtle conservation
I was attracted by the news item with the heading "Bangladeshi shrimp plants fully compliant" (Business Page; 19 April 2008). There is no doubt that the shrimp industry is the second largest foreign exchange earner of Bangladesh. This is one side of the story. This earning comes from what cost on the ecosystem and nature is another side of the story. I am going to highlight an issue related to the conservation of sea turtles and shrimp trade.
In 1987, the United States required all trawling shrimping boats to equip their fishing nets with turtle excluder devices (TED). As a follow-up two years after, the shrimp-turtle law was implemented. This required all countries that the USA was importing shrimp from to certify that the shrimp they shipped were harvested by boats equipped with TEDs. Countries that cannot guarantee the use of the escape devices were banned from exporting shrimp to the USA. Bangladesh was one of the countries banned from exporting shrimps to the USA.
The ban was however lifted with the explanation that the shrimps exported by Bangladesh to the USA are cultured in the hatcheries. That's right but the question remained whether the mother shrimps collected by the shrimp trawlers are using TEDs? The Ministry of Fisheries & Livestock (MOFL) however claims that TEDs are installed in some shrimp trawlers.
In Bangladesh the sea turtles are more threatened by the fishing nets namely behundi and lakkha jals. A lot of sea turtles die getting entangled in the fishing nets and shrimps caught in those nets are exported too. More than a thousand sea turtles were recorded dead from fishing nets last year. It may be noted that sea turtles are recognized as endangered worldwide and many countries including Bangladesh are working for its conservation. Moreover, Bangladesh is a signatory to the Convention on Biological Diversity and Convention on Migratory Species. Studies have shown that using TEDs can reduce sea turtle mortality by almost 50%. Most of the dead sea turtles are adult female sea turtles that come to nest on the beaches. Only one in thousand hatchlings survives till maturity and it takes almost 25-30 years for a sea turtle to reach adulthood.
In addition to lobbying for increasing shrimp export, the Bangladesh government should also keep an eye on compliance with the international conventions for the conservation of much depleted biological resources.
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