National Sea Turtle Stranding & Salvage Network Stranding and Gear Interaction Data Collection

NOAA’s National Marine Fisheries Service (NMFS) manages the Sea Turtle Disentanglement Network (STDN) to respond to sea turtle entanglement in active or discarded fishing gear (in particular those involving the vertical line of fixed gear fisheries), marine debris, or other line in the marine environment. Entanglement has the potential to cause serious injury or mortality, which would negatively impact the recovery of endangered and threatened sea turtle populations. The STDN’s goals are to increase reporting, to reduce serious injury and mortality to sea turtles, and to collect information that can be used for mitigation of these threats. As there is limited observer coverage of fixed gear fisheries, the STDN data are invaluable to NMFS in understanding the threat of entanglement and working towards mitigation.

The latest form for National Sea Turtle Stranding & Salvage Network Stranding and Gear Interaction Data Collection expires 2023-09-30 and can be found here.

Reporting of Sea Turtle Entanglement in Fishing Gear or Marine Debris - written reports

Federal Enterprise Architecture: Natural Resources - Conservation, Marine and Land Management

Review document collections for all forms, instructions, and supporting documents - including paper/printable forms.