The disputed US Law requires shrimpers to use Turtle Excluder Devices or TEDs, essentially metal grids placed within shrimp trawls that prevent the larger turtles from being caught and drowned in the nets.

Shrimp fishermen in the US are required to use the TEDs on their trawl nets to prevent turtles from drowning -- the largest cause of sea turtle deaths. Environmentalists have contended that failure to equip shrimp nets with the TEDs results in the death of 150,000 turtles ayear world-wide.