| 08 October 2008
A rising demand in China for turtles for food and medicine has led to the round-up of turtles from Florida's lakes, ponds and canals.
An additional rule restricting the harvest of freshwater turtles goes into effect on Oct. 23. The Florida Fish and Wildlife Conservation Commission (FWC) passed the rule at the September Commission meeting.
This restriction limits the harvest of wild Florida freshwater turtles to five per day per person. Each fisherman with a commercial license will be allowed to harvest an additional 15 Florida softshell turtles per day, for a total of 20 turtles per day.
This rule has been passed to protect freshwater turtle populations while the FWC develops a long-term comprehensive strategy for sustainable use of amphibian and reptile populations. Recent reports of unusually large freshwater turtle harvests coincide with reports that the demand for freshwater turtles as food and pets has increased.
Excerpt from St. Pete Times:
"Asian countries are causing the extinction, the near extinction or the endangerment of every species of turtle they have over there, so now they're turning to the United States to supply their insatiable demand for turtle," said Matt Aresco, a turtle biologist from the Panhandle.
Licensed commercial fishermen can take up to 20 softshell turtles per person per day; recreational fishermen can take five. (FWC photo by Kevin Enge)
The additional rule that goes into effect October 23, limits the number of turtles that may be taken from the wild, not from turtle farms or other aquaculture facilities. Farmed turtles represent more than 90 percent of the total freshwater turtles exported from Florida. No changes have been made to the number of turtles people may possess; the existing limits still apply. Furthermore, rules about selling or buying turtles have not changed.
“We expect to bring the strategy for freshwater turtles back to the Commission in one year,” Turner said. “We listened to the public, experts and fishermen and will continue to do so during the whole process.”
This additional restriction to the existing rules is an interim measure while the FWC works on a long-term strategy for conservation of these species. Excerpt from St. Pete Times:
The trend toward unusually large wild harvests — which biologists worry threatens species survival — has surfaced at places like Newnan's Lake near Gainesville. Last summer, as Gary Simpson jotted down the license plate number of a suspicious-looking pickup, he wondered about the bulging sacks in the truck bed. Simpson, who manages a tackle shop, worried poachers had filled the sacks with fish.
After he used his pocket knife to slash open a sack, "Turtles started piling out," he said. There were at least a dozen in each of the 20 sacks, he said. "It was pretty obscene, it really was."
By the time the truck's owners had returned to the dock, he said, "those turtles were crawling all over the parking lot." Wildlife officers summoned by Simpson were waiting — but they had to let the turtle-catchers go because they had broken no law.
In April this year, FWC announced closed seasons for harvest of river cooters and their eggs from April 15 to July 31 and soft-shell turtles and their eggs from May 1 to July 31. During other times of the year, the river cooter is a protected species, with a daily bag limit of two turtles and two eggs.
Other states — Alabama and Texas, among others — have recently restricted or banned the harvest of turtles. As those states have cut off access, the harvesters have focused more and more on Florida's turtles, Aresco said.
The harvesters target the larger turtles, the ones old enough to reproduce, Aresco said. Wipe out those and soon all the turtles will be gone.
Two environmental groups, the Center for Biological Diversity and the St. Johns Riverkeeper, petitioned the wildlife commission to ban freshwater turtle harvesting. Turtle biologists asked the state to curtail it to just one turtle per person per day. The commission's own experts recommended a limit of five per person per day.
But several turtle harvesters showed up at a meeting last month to urge commissioners to hold off.
"There's nothing wrong with it," said William Shockley, an electrical contractor who often fishes for turtles around Lake Okeechobee. "It's a good, honest living. This is our survival."
For Shockley, a good day is when he can haul in 30 or 40 softshell turtles, about 500 pounds total. He sells them to one of 10 dealers around the lake. Some go to local restaurants, he said, but others go overseas. Shockley estimated there are between 100 to 500 harvesters statewide.
No one may buy, sell or possess for sale alligator snapping turtles, (pictured above,) Others that cannot be commercially harvested: box turtles, Barbour’s map turtles, river cooters, loggerhead musk turtles, Escambia River map turtles, diamondback terrapins.
Commenting on the new FWC rule:
"That's 140 softshells a week per person," Aresco said. "That's not much different from what's going on now. That's no way to manage a species. It's not based on any science at all."
Commission biologist Bill Turner pointed out that the new 20-per-day limit is just an interim rule. Over the next year the staff will meet with both sides to forge a compromise.
Aresco contended that's not good enough: "We can't allow this to continue for a year."
“Florida softshell turtles lay more eggs than any other freshwater turtle in North America, and this species of freshwater turtle has sustained much higher harvest levels for many years,” said Bill Turner, an FWC amphibian and reptile specialist. “Over the next year we will be collecting information and working with our stakeholders to determine the best strategy for conservation of freshwater turtles in Florida.”
