Its sad, but these were actually Maryland's Turtles. The way we found out was that 3 of the 9 terrapins confiscated had been previousl tagged by my organization. Of the 3 tagged, 2 of them had escaped the soup pot 3 times already, this being their 4th. It has caused quite a stir in New York, and as a result, New York is going to Crack down on its enforcement. As far as Maryland goes, DNR still has no idea the reality of the amount of turtles being harvested each year for food markets. They look at reports from the harvester, assuming that all are honest in their harvest reports. Unfortunately, they are very far from the truth. In 2003, DBT harvesters reported 650 pounds total to the state. In actuality, my organization collected data and tagged close to 3000 individual females (only 6 were males!) and the seller told us that 3000 was about 10% of what he sold from the harvesters. At 3-4 pounds a piece, the numbers just don't match up. We will soon publish this data, and hopefully encourage MD DNR to get their act together, and not be so ignorant of the situation.

J

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