A cardiologist with more than three decades of medical experience, Dr. Pradeep Ghia formerly served as the president of his own practice in Easton, Pennsylvania. Dr. Pradeep Ghia also supports a number of community and nonprofit organizations outside his professional pursuits, including the World Wildlife Fund (WWF). The WWF contributes to the conservation and protection of sea turtles by working with fisheries to reduce bycatch.
The WWF encourages fisheries to switch to the use of more turtle-friendly fishing gear due to the significant threat it poses to the wellbeing of sea turtles. Fishing gear represents the single greatest threat to sea turtles through the use of gillnets, longline hooks, and shrimp trawl nets, as they accidentally catch hundreds of thousands of turtles every year. Efforts to reduce turtle bycatch include switching to the more turtle-friendly circle hook and the use of turtle excluder devices (TEDs) that allow turtles to escape from nets unharmed.
In addition, the WWF holds an annual competition known as Smart Gear to promote the creation of new solutions to bycatch problems. The competition has resulted in the development of devices that minimize turtle bycatch on tuna longlines and help turtles avoid gillnets. Recent competitions also prompted research into the use of LED and chemical lightsticks on nets in order to warn sea turtles of the net's presence.
