States rethink
turtle trapping
July 19,
2009
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."