What you're likely seeing are females harvested legally from Maryland and sold in NY. Maryland does not have a slot size limit, NY does. MD only has a minimum size limit - if it's six inches or larger on the BOTTOM shell, it can be harvested in MD. That means that basically ONLY females will be harvested - not a good "conservation" plan. I was on the MD Governer's Diamondback Task Force a few years ago, and we suggested that MD switch to a slot limit similar to NY, so that at least some of the older, bigger (and thus more productive) females wouldn't be harvested, but the Fisheries Service didn't take our suggestion. Want to change something? Start a letter writing campaign to the MD DNR asking them to adopt a slot limit for terrapin harvesting.

At least in MD you're allowed to own up to three terrapins as pets (even though a commercial fisherman can take as many as he wants so long as he reports his catch). I believe you can't have them as pets in NY?

Katrina

"What frustrates me HERE is that we have laws which strictly govern, how, when, what size and how many dbts can be harvested. I see these restrictions violated on a regular basis and nothing ever seems to get done about it.

There are supposed to be these safeguards in place. I have seen vast numbers of diamond backs way over the legal size (never under) sitting in these markets."

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