Laboratory is to provide scientific information for 1) management of commercial and recreational fishery species, 2) characterization of habitats for fishery species, and 3) conservation of endangered sea turtles and other marine species, the Gulf of Mexico, the U.S. southeastern Atlantic and the U. S. Caribbean.
Translation: this facility primarily is used for testing out strategies to protect sea turtles from people!
Specifically - we saw shrimp nets, which catch turtles and drown them, since they can't get to the surface of the water to breathe. The Galveston Marine Laboratory has devised a metal hoop with bars across the opening, which is installed in the shrimp net, thus preventing sea turtles from getting pulled into the net - but allowing for the shrimp to be caught. It's now federal law for every shrimper to have this contraption as part of each of their nets. Pretty cool, eh?
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| Little baby turtles. They escape the nets because they're too young to dive deeply - they mainly swim along the surface, eating stuff that's there. |
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