Commercial and recreational fishing cause the death of many sea turtles.

Sea turtles drown after getting entangled in fishing nets and fishing line. They take the bait used by long-line fisheries and drown while being dragged behind fishing boats.

Sea turtles become entangled in ghost nets: fishing nets that are discarded or accidentally washed overboard at sea. Ghost nets drift with currents and continue to fish, and kill many animals including sea turtles, dolphins, sharks, whales and fish, for many years. Ghost nets have been found in northern Queensland that are 4 kilometres long and 12 metres deep.

Trawling fisheries have been responsible for the deaths of many thousands of sea turtles: so called by catch. This most destructive of fishing practices can have a by catch of 90%. Changes to legislation requires commercial trawlers on the Great Barrier Reef to include Turtle Excluder Devices (TEDs), which have reduced the by catch of sea turtles. However it is yet to be established how effective the use of TED’s has been, and TEDs are not required in many places around the world.

Shark control programs that use baited hooks or nets also cause turtle deaths by snagging and entanglement.