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 From: Wtaylorlaw
To: WTaylor784
Sent: 7/20/2009 9:59:10 P.M. Central  Daylight Time
Subj: Fwd: USA Today article on turtle trapping





-----Original Message-----
From: Jeff  Miller <[log in to unmask]>
To: 'Jeff Miller'  <[log in to unmask]>
Sent: Mon, Jul 20, 2009 12:57  pm
Subject: USA Today article on turtle trapping


_http://www.usatoday.com/news/nation/environment/2009-07-19-turtle-hunt_N.ht
m_ 
(http://www.usatoday.com/news/nation/environment/2009-07-19-turtle-hunt_N.htm)   

 
States rethink  turtle trapping
 
July 19,  2009
By _Judy  Keen_ 
(http://www.usatoday.com/community/tags/reporter.aspx?id=329) , USA TODAY
 
SHEFFIELD, Iowa — Using a long pole  with a hook on one end, Eric Eckhardt 
grabs a partially submerged mesh trap  and hauls it out of a farm pond. 
Inside are a small soft-shell turtle and a  12-pound snapping turtle.
The live turtles go  into tubs in the back of Eckhardt's truck. Later, 
after he checks other traps  he set the previous evening, the turtles will be 
sold. He and his family eat  turtle only occasionally.
Trapping is a hobby for  Eckhardt, and the money he earns — 75 cents to 
$1.50 per turtle, depending on  the type and season — helps pay for family 
vacations. He averages four turtles  a day in the summer.
For Eckhardt, 43, who  works at a storm-door company, turtle trapping is a 
way to spend time outdoors  with his son Cooper, 10, and daughter Georgi, 
14. He isn't in it for the  money, he says. Turtles "are fascinating," he 
says. "People make fun of that,  but I don't care. I like them."
If the Center for  Biological Diversity, a non-profit conservation group 
based in Tucson, has its  way, Eckhardt and others who trap wild turtles for 
commercial use will soon be  out of business.
The Center has asked  Iowa and other states to end unlimited commercial 
harvesting of turtles. As  demand for turtle meat increases in Asia, where it 
is a delicacy, prices are  rising in the USA, says Jeff Miller, a 
conservation advocate for the group.  That's leading to the depletion of freshwater 
wild turtle  populations.
"The demand for turtles  in Asia is driving massive exploitation of wild 
turtles," says Chris Jones, a  Huntsville, Texas, lawyer who works with the 
Center.
In Iowa, the turtle  population "is not an unlimited resource, but if 
harvesting is  done20correctly, it is a sustainable resource," says Scott 
Gritters, a  Department of Natural Resources fisheries biologist.
In response to the  Center for Biological Diversity's petition, the 
fisheries staff of the Iowa  DNR reported that snapping turtles and painted turtles 
are "common, widespread  and abundant" and recommended against a ban. The 
number of soft-shell turtles  is declining and is "some cause for long-term 
concern," it  said.
Individual trappers  aren't necessarily making more money because of high 
demand, Jones says, but  buyers who purchase turtles from people such as 
Eckhardt and from commercial  turtle farms sell to exporters for up to $15 a 
pound.
Miller says 250,000 to  1 million turtles are exported each year and some 
are contaminated with  mercury, pesticides and PCBs.
Lax rules for turtle  harvesting
The Center for Biological Diversity  and other environmental groups last 
year petitioned regulators in Florida,  Georgia, Oklahoma and Texas to ban 
commercial turtle harvests. Oklahoma put a  three-year moratorium in place, and 
Texas barred commercial harvests in public  waters.
This year, the center  petitioned the only states with unrestricted 
harvests or rules it considers  too loose: Arkansas, Iowa, Kentucky, Louisiana, 
Missouri, Ohio, South  Carolina, Tennessee. This spring, South Carolina placed 
limits on turtle  harvests.
A ban on commercial  harvesting of Florida's freshwater turtles takes 
effect Monday. Bill Turner, a  Fish and Wildlife Conservation Commission turtle 
biologist, first heard  reports of large turtle harvests from Florida lakes 
in March 2008. Up to  150,000 soft-shell turtles were exported from the state 
each year for the past  five years, he says. There are 25 active commercial 
turtle farms in the  state.
Because turtles breed  late in their lifespan, Turner says, the removal of 
so many of them  "destabilizes the population."
Wisconsin reached the same conclusion in 1998,  says Adam Collins of that 
state's Department of Natural Resources. Because of  declining turtle 
populations, the state established a July-November turtle  harvesting season and 
set a daily limit.
"Our standards … are  designed to ensure their long-term sustainability," 
he  says.
In Iowa, 'the market  is there' for turtles
Iowa's commercial harvesters are licensed  and must report monthly the 
number of turtles they collect. Last year,  Gritters says, they reported 
catching about 22,000 turtles, or 230,000 pounds.  In Iowa, only snappers, 
soft-shell and painted turtles can be caught, using  traps, hooks, or hooks and line.
Recently, Gritters  says, "there's been quite an influx of new trappers 
because the market i s  there." As newcomers join the hunt — 175 commercial 
licenses were issued this  year, up from 164 last year — more regulations 
likely will be needed, he  says.
Jake Robertson of Storm  Lake, Iowa, who harvests 20,000 to 30,000 pounds 
of turtle a year, agrees. In  the decade that he's been trapping turtles, 
Robertson has seen no population  decline.
Unlike fish, which are  stocked in many Iowa lakes and streams, turtles are 
self-sustaining, he says.  "Turtles are probably doing better than other 
aquatic species out there,"  Robertson says.
Eckhardt, who has a  dozen $50 traps, catches turtles on private property — 
with permission and  often at the invitation of landowners who consider 
them a  nuisance.
Talk about the  shrinking turtle population worries him, he says. "We've 
got to find out first  how many are out there," he says, "and if they do need 
protecting, by all  means protect them."

 
 
 
***************************************


 
Jeff  Miller
Conservation Advocate
Center for Biological  Diversity
351 California Street, Suite  600
San Francisco, CA 94104
Phone: (415) 436-9682  x303
Fax: (415) 436-9683
Web site:  www.biologicaldiversity.org
 
At the Center for  Biological Diversity, we believe that the welfare of 
human beings is  deeply linked to nature — to the existence in our world of  a 
vast diversity of wild plants and animals.  Because diversity has  intrinsic 
value, and because its loss impoverishes society, we work  to secure a 
future for all species, great and small,  hovering on the brink of extinction. 
We do so through science, law, and  creative media, with a focus on 
protecting the lands, waters,  and climate that species need to survive.  We want 
those who come  after us to inherit a world where the wild is still  alive.





 

 
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