Ernie,

While I agree that we should probably slow the harvest of adult turtles. We shouldn’t ban anything. Bans are NOT the answer. Let’s not kid ourselves bans are the easiest thing for FWC to do. FWC is the biggest state wildlife agency in the country. If they are unwilling to do their job then no other state agency will either. And this opens the door for them to take away everyone’s rights. What will be next? I think what you describe (from FWC) is a bad idea – to restrictive. They could easily require turtle collecting licenses and record keeping to make folks conform to bag limits. But they also need wardens in the field as well. Don’t let them push the “hype.” This China thing is hype. Yes, turtles are going to China but turtles have been around for millions of years and they will continue to be around. I spoke to someone today who knows that the Chinese have started massive turtle farms in their country. Pretty soon this won’t be an issue and then where will all the collectors, dealers and breeders be? They will be SOL. Meanwhile turtle populations will rebound if they are in fact declining due to over-harvest. I guess all the turtles for sale in Florida will have to be “captive born” whether they were or not.

I would also agree that they (academics) will get what they want. They always do. They are the “experts” but these “experts” also push a radical left wing banning agenda. If they could stop all harvest they would, let’s face it. The system is corrupt to begin with because academics train the wildlife agency personnel and they seek research funds from them. It is a closed loop system. We also don’t have an organized counter group to go up against them. The “agenda” uses scare tactics to push their agenda. And they play “fast and loose” with the facts to push this agenda. We have nothing substantial to counter. Until development is completely stopped and the impact of roads is mitigated they really have no business banning anything.

Back to the “hype” you are pushing concerning turtle natural history. Yes, they take a while to mature but not much more time then some snakes. And turtles live along time. They have many years to reproduce. Some are reproductively active for decades. Also the number of clutches and clutch sizes are low balled. Academics always err on the side of caution whether caution is reality or not. Most lower vertebrate wildlife has high juvenile mortality if the ecosystem is near capacity, but, when it is not, juvenile mortality is not nearly as high because of the reduction of competitive pressure. Further, much has been published about box turtle neonate and juvenile mortality. Mostly that researchers can’t find these age classes so the stats show high mortality. But then a researcher in the Midwest started using dogs and low and behold they started finding these age classes. So the researchers just ASSUMED high mortality when in fact they sucked at finding neonates and juveniles. Many box turtle breeders and collectors know how to find neonates and juveniles. Go out to areas with good adult populations after heavy rains and there the little ones are. There are other misconceptions as well. So my point here is don’t believe everything you read or hear. There are usually two sides to every story and the truth lies somewhere in the middle.

Welkerii
El Paso, TX

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