https://www.nytimes.com/1987/03/29/us/vietnamese-join-us-shrimp-fishermen-in-protest.html

Dean M. Wilkinson, wildlife legislative director for Greenpeace, an environmental group, did not dispute that. ''Each shrimp boat probably doesn't catch more than a few turtles a year,'' he said. ''But when you spread that out across a 17,000-boat fleet, it adds up to big numbers. And we're talking about animals that are on the edge of extinction.''

Environmentalists estimate the total number of Kemp's ridleys at not more than 10,000, including less than 600 nesting females.

Mr. Wilkinson said that the protest over the use of the devices was based largely on misinformation. He said that an earlier design for these turtle excluder devices was bulky and did decimate the shrimp catch, but added, ''There are now 300 boats using TED's and they say it's not hurting them.''

Tee John Mialjevich, a Louisiana shrimper who is a protest leader, said that should a law requiring the use of devices be enacted, he and many other fishermen would disobey it.

The Vietnamese shrimpers, however, said they were not certain they would participate in an illegal protest. ''We don't know yet what we'd do,'' Mr. Huy said. ''We'd have to see. But now we are doing this, which we are allowed to do.''