The US bans Mexican Shrimp For The Sake Of Turtles!!!

The U.S. State Department has decided to embargo imports of wild shrimp from Mexico begining April 20th after inspectors found that some Mexican shrimp vessels were not using the required Turtle Excluder Devices (TEDs). U.S. regulations require all wild shrimp imports to comply with turtle protection requirements including the use of TEDs correctly installed in the nets of shrimp trawlers. This news comes on the heals of the U. S. decision in April, 2009 to decertify and embargo Costa Rican wild shrimp imports for one year for the same reason. The list of countries certified and decertified under turtle excluder rules is published annually by the U. S. State Department, and countries found not correctly using TEDs can get reinspected and reinstated into the U. S. market. (Click here to read entire article)

Thanks for the info Pretoma! We all hope this sends a very strong message to the countries who use the shrimp suppliers as a major industry! Purchasing countries will not sit by while allowing thousands of countless innocent and critically endangered species perish!

xoxox

nicole