Every year, thousands of diamondback terrapins drown in crab pots along the New Jersey coast. These small turtles breathe air. When one swims into a submerged trap and can’t find a way out, it dies. The fix is a small, low-cost device that narrows the trap’s entrance so turtles stay out while blue crabs still get in.

New Jersey has required these devices since the 1990s, but only in narrow waterways and man-made lagoons. Everywhere else, crabbers can set traps without them. A new mapping analysis found that close to 95% of the tidal waters where terrapins are documented falls outside the protected zones. A creek 145 feet wide is covered. A creek just 10 feet wider is not. The turtles have no way of telling the difference.

“Wildlife protections shouldn’t disappear because an animal crosses an invisible line on a map,” said Tara Zuardo, a senior advocate at the Center for Biological Diversity.

The stakes are high. From Massachusetts to Texas, terrapin populations have dropped 75% in the past 50 years, and in many spots along the Atlantic and Gulf coasts they have disappeared completely. Lost and abandoned ghost pots add to the toll, trapping wildlife long after anyone comes back to check them.

Six conservation groups, including the Center for Biological Diversity and several local riverkeepers, have formally asked the New Jersey Department of Environmental Protection (DEP) to act. According to the Center, the state’s own wildlife plan already calls for wider use of these devices, and advocates say one statewide rule would be easier for crabbers to follow and for officers to enforce. The groups are also asking the DEP to close high-risk marshes and creeks to crab pots during key seasons, launch a permanent program to remove ghost pots, and track where terrapins are dying.

Sign the petition to tell the New Jersey DEP to require turtle-saving devices on every crab pot before another season of needless drownings.