US halts Mexico shrimp imports on sea turtle concerns

<p>MEXICO CITY &mdash; Mexico said Friday it will try to regain U.S. certification for shrimp exports, after the country lost its registration because of inadequate protections for sea turtles. </p>
<p>Mexico’s agriculture department said it will take corrective measures and carry out training to ensure Mexican trawl-net shrimp boats don’t sweep up sea turtles as by-catch. The department said the U.S. ban coincides with the closure of Mexico’s shrimp fishing season.</p>
<p>Mexico had required fishermen to install sea-turtle-exclusion devices on shrimp nets. But the U.S. State Department said Friday that Mexico no longer met U.S. standards on the issue. </p>
<p>It was not clear whether that was because Mexico hadn’t been enforcing the protections, or because U.S. procedures became more stringent. However, Mexico acknowledged it will institute a “more aggressive program of inspection and oversight.”</p>
<p>The State Department said it “suspended the certification of Mexico because its sea turtle protection program is no longer comparable to that of the United States.”</p>
<p>Most of Mexico’s wild shrimp catch is exported to the United States.</p>