You have it all wrong my information isn't coming from the academic hype the FWC or the news papers . I get it straight from the guys doing all the catching and from seeing first hand what go's on. There's no way to defend what their doing or how their doing it.





I made a comment to one of the larger guys about how the biologist are saying their going to hunt all the turtles out. His answer ? "WE WILL , it might take ten years ". I asked what he thought about soft shells being like rats that breed anywhere . He said "no way, they can move in anywhere but really they need the right place to breed . "



FWC has actually been pretty good about things but it's gotten out of hand. I hate government intervention but seriously the commercial turtle guys created all their own problems by acting like dirt bags.



Turtles have been around for millions of years but throw that out and look at the past fifty. Sure adult turtles produce a long time and that's why there's a low survival rate. The commercial collectors are strip minors that take everything eggs, hatchlings giant adults. Every species egg to adult , soft shells, snappers and large hard shells to the meat market the rest to the pet trade. There will be no breeders and an insufficient grow out population to sustain the species if these guys are allowed to continue.





I know all about the Chinese turtle farms . For the most part their really grow outs they buy up hundreds of thousands of baby softshells and snappers and raise them until they can sell them for meat. That`s a big part of egg poaching. The guys hatch out the eggs then export the baby's .



Any legitimate Chinese (did I really say that ? ) breeding projects will take ten years to start producing and based on past performance will suck anyway. Breeding soft shells is tricky. Lets say they use adults to start with for arguments sake . The first year they will get eggs from gravid females then it will be three or four years before they get any real production if things go great. Generally first season turtles produce next to nothing in terms of potential the following season 65% the next 85 % . This is the turtle formula.It will take two years or more for those hatchlings to make a meal. the Asian market is bottomless.





I can't agree that the reproductive numbers are low balled . I have seen areas totally decimated by commercial collectors and habitat lose.







Ernie Eison

WESTWOOD ACRES REPTILE FARM INC.

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