What is "turtle excluder device"

n. (context fishing English) A device that allows a captured sea turtle to escape when caught in a fishing net.

A turtle excluder device or TED is a specialized device that allows a captured sea turtle to escape when caught in a fisherman's net.

In particular, sea turtles can be caught when bottom trawling is used by the commercial shrimp fishing industry. In order to catch shrimp, a fine meshed trawl net is needed. This results in large amounts of other marine organisms being also caught as bycatch. When a turtle gets caught or entangled in a trawl net, it becomes trapped and is unable to return to the surface. Since sea turtles are air-breathing creatures with lungs, they eventually drown.