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Turtle Harvests Alarm Biologists

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The Associated Press

Published: March 27, 2009

DES MOINES, Iowa - Surging demand for turtle meat in southeast Asia has prompted a huge jump in turtle harvesting, leading to concerns that populations of the reptiles could suffer permanent damage.

Freshwater turtle populations have plunged in Asia, where the meat is a delicacy, leading to increased trapping in U.S. ponds and streams, said Fred Janzen, an Iowa State University professor who studies ecology.

In Iowa, harvests have increased from 29,000 pounds in 1987 to 235,000 pounds in 2007. During that period, the number of licensed harvesters more than quadrupled to 175 people.

In Arkansas, an average of 196,460 aquatic turtles a year were harvested from 2004 to 2006, according to the state Fish and Game Commission.

Texas banned any commercial collection of wild turtles in 2007.

The Florida Fish and Wildlife Conservation Commission will consider a ban on the harvesting of wild freshwater turtles April 15 at the urging of Gov. Charlie Crist, who said in November that continued commercial harvesting "could result in long-term impacts very quickly."

A law enforcement bulletin from the commission estimated that 1,600 to 3,000 pounds of turtles are shipped to Asia every week from each of the airports of Tampa, Orlando, Fort Lauderdale and Miami, the South Florida Sun Sentinel reported this month.

Calling the commercial turtle harvest "unsustainable," the Tucson, Ariz.-based Center for Biological Diversity earlier this month asked officials in eight Midwestern and Southern states to ban the practice.

The Arizona organization worked with 24 other conservation and public health groups to send petitions to the eight states, raising questions about the safety of eating turtle meat and calling attention to the number of turtles being harvested.

"People in states where there's either no regulation or lax regulations are literally strip mining streams," said Jeff Miller, a spokesman for the center. "We're going to see some pretty catastrophic results in terms of the number of turtles being taken. It's way beyond anything that's sustainable."

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