A day after the repeal of a 1987 state law that prohibited Louisiana Department of Wildlife and Fisheries agents from enforcing federal turtle-excluder device regulations, Monterey Bay Aquarium's Seafood Watch on Thursday (July 2) has removed Louisiana shrimp from its "avoid" list.

The program popular with environmentally conscious people and retailers had recommended in 2013 that consumers avoid the wild shrimp caught by Louisiana fishers because of the prohibition to inspect for turtle-excluder devices.

Often referred to as TEDs, the devices create an opening in shrimp nets to allow trapped turtles to escape before they drown.

The Seafood Watch program now lists Louisiana shrimp the same has it does all other Gulf of Mexico shrimp caught within otter trawl. It lists them as a "good" alternative.

Gov. Bobby Jindal signed a bill Wednesday (July 1) repealing the ban on enforcing inspections. The Louisiana House approved the bill last month 100-0. The Louisiana Shrimp Task Force also had unanimously endorsed its repeal in April after environmental groups have long pushed for better enforcement of the use of such devices in shrimp trawls.

While Louisiana shrimpers always have been required to comply with federal TED regulations, Louisiana was the only state in the country that prohibited its agents from enforcing compliance.

Some retailers had boycotted Louisiana shrimp, in part due to the Monterey Bay Aquarium's Seafood Watch recommendation.

"Our concern was that this minority of buyers who were boycotting could turn into a majority if we did not make changes," Mark Abraham, chairman of the Louisiana Shrimp Task Force, said Thursday. He said there is more work to be done, and that Louisiana shrimpers "continue to work to make our local fishery sustainable."

The Oceana environmental group said in a statement Wednesday that because of "sustainability commitments" about 13,000 restaurants and stores across the United States had refused to sell Louisiana shrimp before the recent legislation's repeal.

TEDs have been required in otter trawls for more than 20 years, but shrimpers using skimmer trawls, pusher-head trawls, and wing-net trawls still are authorized to use tow time limits instead, based on the time of year, to help prevent incidental turtle catch.

There are five species of sea turtles in the Gulf of Mexico and the Atlantic, and all are protected under the Endangered Species Act. They are loggerhead, green, Kemp's ridley, hawksbill and leatherback turtles. The National Marine Fisheries Service and the U.S. Fish and Wildlife Service recently have proposed reclassifying the green sea turtle as simply "threatened" due to improvements in their populations.