Sea Turtle Campaign The Mission: To prevent the killing of 150,000 endangered sea turtles each year in unmodified shrimp nets. Issue Overview: Like the dolphins, the sea turtles have been sold out by the U.S. in the name of "free trade". Turtles are caught in shrimping nets around the world, but "turtle excluder devices" can release over 97% of sea turtles unharmed. USA law until 1988 mandated the use of these devices on all shrimp sold in the U.S., saving huge numbers of turtles. But now the U.S. government is bowing to the World Trade Organization which says such U.S. laws are not allowable. We're campaigning to reject the arbitrary WTO rulings and prevent the eradication of sea turtles. Issue Facts: Sea turtles are natural-born survivors which predate the dinosaurs and have remained in the environment largely unchanged for over 100 million years. These gentle creatures can live longer than humans, but have a low reproductive rate even in the best of times. Air-breathing reptiles, sea turtles all return to land to lay their eggs. Due to almost complete infant mortality; each individual is important to the survival of the species. Sea turtles are migratory, and swim incredible distances spending their entire lives at sea (except for egg-laying by the females). One species, the rare leatherback, can approach the weight of a compact car. But these survivors may not survive man. All sea turtle species have been declared threatened or endangered. Their nesting beaches are increasingly disappearing or being overrun by predators (human and human-associated) worldwide. They are under assault from marine debris that snares them and accumulates in their stomachs. They are targeted by poachers globally. Most preventably, and in the largest numbers, they are killed - unnecessarily - in shrimp nets. An inexpensive device called a "TED", which has variously stood for "trawler efficiency device" and "turtle excluder device", may be incorporated into shrimp nets. These devices, which are required to be used by all U.S. shrimp boats, release more than 97% of netted turtles unharmed. They also save more than half of the other "bycatch" species which otherwise end up dead and discarded. Greenpeace Foundation believes that it is the absolute right of U.S. citizens to demand adherence to quality standards, including the ability to ban destructive practices used to procure products imported into the USA. In fact, this is what happened. In 1989 the U.S. congress passed a law requiring all foreign wild-caught shrimp sold in the U.S. to be caught using TED-type excluder devices. It worked! Seventeen nations installed the devices to comply with US law and sell their shrimp in the lucrative U.S. market, saving thousands of turtles annually. However, in a chilling replay of the dolphin sellout, in which U.S. dolphin-safe laws were enthusiastically gutted by the Clinton/Gore administration to comply with "free trade' treaties, turtles have become the next casualty. The World Trade Organization (WTO) doesn't give a damn about laying waste to the environment, and has decided that U.S. laws which prevent wildlife from being exterminated are arbitrary and illegal "barriers to trade". This includes the U.S. turtle-protection laws which - until now - have been the only protective laws in the world. In October '98. The WTO ruled against the U.S. turtle-protection laws, and the Clinton/Gore administration again decided to go along with it. U.S. acceptance of these dictatorial WTO powers eliminates all global incentives for fishermen to save turtles from shrimp nets, setting the stage for a massacre from which turtles may never recover. The WTO is, in fact, much more than a threat to dolphins and turtles. It represents the trading nations of the world utterly rejecting national conservation laws, which are usually the only ones with any teeth. The U.S. Endangered Species Act is a prime target of the WTO, which now seeks to have U.S. taxpayers send millions of dollars in "reparations" to turtle-killing nations, to penalize the U.S. for not subsidizing the unnecessary turtle kills! The WTO has kept its deliberations a secret from the public with the complicity of the U.S. The U.S. is the most powerful nation in the world. What it says and does has enormous bearing on what happens internationally. It does not even have to belong to the WTO, much less to cave in to every WTO ruling. This is a slippery slope and we're already well down it. The sovereignty of the U.S. market is being challenged, as our legislators lose the right to set the standards desired by the American people. Under the WTO's draconian rule, Americans will be forced to buy the lowest-quality product other nations want to sell. (In the case of the dolphins, the U.S. administration has already colluded with the pro-treaty forces to re-define the term "dolphin safe" under law to include methods that kills thousands of dolphins! The U.S. consumer is losing even the right to know what she is buying.) It would be a cosmic catastrophe - and a terrible shame - if the sea turtles lived through the apocalypse which killed the dinosaurs, only to be extinguished by the committee ruling of a few bureaucrats under a poorly-crafted treaty. And yet that is just what we are facing. Greenpeace Foundation opposes the WTO rulings in the strongest terms, and calls on the Congress to wake up and take a stand against the erosion of U.S. law by the WTO. Stand behind U.S. laws to protect the turtles, and reject the attacks on U.S. conservation law! The current U.S. administration should reverse the Clinton/Gore sellout positions and support U.S. law. Let's get the USA out of the WTO! Write your congresspeople and the U.S. Trade Representative about rejecting the WTO and maintaining Congress' historic power to set and enforce US product standards! Greenpeace Foundation is a member of the Turtle-Safe Coalition (see links page) And urges you to ask for certified Turtle-Safe Shrimp! This shrimp has been certified by the dedicated conservationists at Earth Island Institute to be the product of environmentally-responsible boats and companies. Detailed Background: Earth Island Certififed Turtle-Safe Shrimp is a consumer-based tool for protecting endangered sea turtles. By buying only shrimp certified to be caught using fishing gear that allows turtles to escape from shrimp nets, consumers can both support fishers who are responsibly using this gear and provide an incentive to others to follow their example.As of April 1998 over 3 million pounds of Certified Turtle-Safe Shrimp is available. A total of 125 shrimping boats are responsible for catching this shrimp, and the numbers are steadily increasing as the movement to save ancient sea turtles from drowning in shrimp nets gains momentum. Earth Island has certified the following shrimp distributors as being Turtle-Safe:Skipper Seafood, Walter's Caviar, Monterey Seafood, Osprey Seafood Full distribution details are available for each distributor. (see links page) 125 shrimp vessels with an annual catch of 3 million pounds have been certified and their shrimp is available through the above distributors. These fishers are the family farmers of the sea; by choosing Earth Island Certified Turtle-Safe you are supporting independent American entrepreneurs who are committed to the stewardship of their environment. The USA's oldest and original Greenpeace, proudly unaffiliated with Greenpeace USA