Other
States, Feds Should Follow Suit to Stop Slaughter of Native Turtles
MOBILE,
Ala.— 4/9/12 Press Release - Alabama moved to protect its wealth of diverse,
native freshwater turtles when the state’s conservation advisory board voted
unanimously to approve emergency regulations banning all commercial collection
and killing of wild turtles and their eggs in public and private waters. The new
regulations, which went into effect on Sunday, are among the most protective
state rules to prevent export-driven overharvest of native turtles in the
southern United States.
“Way
to go Alabama! We’re so glad that states across the South are finally beginning
to clamp down on the slaughter of native turtles,” said Collette Adkins Giese,
an attorney at the Center for Biological Diversity who specializes in
protecting reptiles and amphibians. “Turtle harvesters in the United States are
catching and exporting millions of wild freshwater turtles every year,
devastating populations that are already suffering from a lot of other threats,
like habitat loss, water pollution and road mortality.”
The
United States is a turtle biodiversity hotspot, home to more types of turtles
than any other country in the world. U.S. turtle traders capture and sell more
than 2 million wild freshwater turtles each year — mostly to supply food, pet
and medicinal markets in Asia, where soaring turtle consumption rates have
already decimated the local turtles.
Because
freshwater turtles live for a long time — some up to 150 years — and breed late
in life, with low reproductive rates, they are highly sensitive to overharvest.
Alabama hosts 30 native turtle species — more than half of all the native
freshwater turtles in North America. Alabama herpetologists sounded the alarm
that the state’s turtle populations were plummeting because of demand and a
lack of regulation.
In
2011 the Center for Biological Diversity petitioned the
U.S. Fish and Wildlife Service for international trade restrictions to end
unsustainable export of freshwater turtles. The petition seeks protection under
the Convention on International Trade in Endangered Species of Wild Fauna and
Flora (CITES) for 20 species of native midwestern and southern freshwater
turtles, including the alligator snapping turtle, map turtles, softshell
turtles, spotted turtle, Blanding’s turtle and diamondback terrapin.
In
Alabama, personal collection of turtles (for pets or food) is now limited to
two per day, and these animals cannot be sold. Turtle consumption poses a
human-health risk; because turtles live longer and bioaccumulate considerably
more contaminants than fish, many turtles sold as food are contaminated with
mercury, PCBs and pesticides.
Background
Alabama’s
new regulations void all commercial turtle harvest permits, which previously
allowed catching and keeping up to 10 turtles per day. Alabama turtle farmers
can continue to propagate native turtles, but brood stock must come from other
permitted turtle farmers or from legal sources outside of Alabama. Turtle
dealers can continue to buy, sell, import and export legally acquired turtles,
but the state now requires stricter annual reporting from turtle dealers.
Along
with a coalition of conservation and health groups, the Center submitted
regulatory petitions in 2008 and 2009 to 12 states without adequate turtle protections
(Arkansas, Florida, Georgia, Iowa, Kentucky, Louisiana, Missouri, Ohio,
Oklahoma, South Carolina, Tennessee and Texas). These petitions ask for state
bans on commercial harvest from all public and private waters to prevent
further depletions of native turtles.
In
response to the petition, Oklahoma enacted a moratorium on commercial harvest
of turtles from public waters in 2008, while studying the status of its wild
turtle populations. In 2009 Florida banned almost all commercial harvest of
freshwater turtles from public and private waters; the same year South Carolina
limited turtle harvest for nine native species, with regulations allowing
taking no more than 10 turtles from the wild at one time and no more than 20
turtles in one year. Earlier this year Georgia set annual catch limits for
eight species of native turtles, but they are not sufficiently protective of
vulnerable turtles because they allow high harvest
Contact: Collette Adkins Giese, (651) 955-3821
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