SUN CHRONICLE (Attleboro, Massachusetts) 23 September 06 Wheaton professor tenacious about terrapins (Susan LaHoud)
Norton: The tiny ter rapin turtles start to poke their heads out of their ringed and ridged shells as they feel the heat of Wheaton College professor Bar bara Brennessel's hands beneath them.
The prehistoric looking creatures, named for the concentric rings on their shells, are less than a week old. Each still have their baby `` tooth,'' which they use to slit their eggs open to enter the world.
And their world -- the northernmost range being the sandy banks and brackish water of Wellfleet and the marshlands in several other loca tions on the Cape -- is threatened.
Residential development, asphalt roads and sea walls are preventing them from getting to their historic nesting areas in Massachusetts, Brennessel said.
Female terrapins, which grow to the size of a dinner plate, typically create nests in sandy areas just above the marshes so that they do not get inundated by the tides. But much of that land has turned into prime real estate for development of beach homes.
Considered a threat ened species here, per mits are required to handle the tur tles which are unique because they prefer a mix of fresh and salt water found in estuaries.
`` They have exploited this habitat like no other turtle can,'' Brennessel said.
What also separates terrapins from other turtles is that they have the biggest size discrepancies between males and females. An adult male terrapin is about two-thirds of the size of a female.
The seven baby terrapins being held by Brennessel in her small col lege office decorated with shells, plushies and posters of the species, are survivors of a nest where the other eggs were either desiccated or never hatched. They are headed to winter digs in the basement of the college's science center, where they will be monitored and fed by students as part of a joint program between the col lege and the Massachusetts Audubon Society.
Brennessel said the terrapins will in June be returned to the same nest in which they were found in Wellfleet. Some of them will carry small radios to track where they go next.
`` The habitat where they hatched is not the same as when they are adults,'' said Brennessel, who has been at Wheaton since 1980.
Based on the tracking over the past couple of years, terrapins appear to spend their young years in the marsh and then head to creeks, she said. The radios fall off as the turtle's shell expands with growth.
The information gleaned from their studies, along with Brennessel's travels and talks with researchers in terrapin territories in other states, was the basis for the biology teacher's first book, `` Diamonds in the Marsh: A Natural History of the Diamondback Terrapin.''
She spent two years writing the book, which was published through the University Press of New England this past April.
`` I traveled up and down the coast and talked to other researchers which was important because Massa chusetts does not reflect all of the conservation issues'' facing the ter rapin, Brennessel said.
Terrapins are found along the Atlantic and Gulf coasts and are threatened throughout those areas.
In New Jersey, for example, the turtles face road mortality; in Flori da's Everglades, the threat is hypersaline water; in the Chesapeake, it's blue crab harvesting, where turtles are caught in the crab pots and drown; and in New York City's Jamaica Bay, the terrapin habitat is in danger because the marsh is going under water, an occurrence called `` subsidence.''
Brennessel, 58, of Dover, a mother of four who teaches biochemistry and nutrition at the college, said she first got interested in the plight of the ter rapins when she enrolled with her oldest daughter in an Audubon Soci ety class on turtles in Wellfleet, where the family has summered for 25 years.
`` My oldest daughter was always fascinated with creatures -- raising bugs and worms and then having a releasing day. She had rescued a box turtle from a lab,'' Brennessel said.
Her daughter recently graduat ed with a master's degree in marine biology.
Brennessel struck up a partnership with the Massachusetts Audubon Society in 2001, the year she and her daugh ter attended the class at the Wellfleet Bay Wildlife Sanctuary, and began involving Wheaton students in field work.
Dozens of students have been involved in both field and lab work analyzing the turtles over the years, she said.
In addition to observing and studying the turtles, `` I realized there was some genetic questions we could answer in the lab,'' Brennessel said.
`` I was involving a lot of students and they would ask if there was any thing they could read'' for more infor mation on terrapins, she said, adding that was the impetus for the book.
There were journals and reports, but nothing `` user-friendly'' or all encompassing, she said.
While not exactly a summer read, Brennessel said her book is a history of the industry which has in the past included harvesting the turtles for soup and stew, still considered a deli cacy in the Asian community. Ter rapin stew was one of former President William Taft's favorite meals and it would be served on special occasions, though the cook would have to be paid extra to fix it, according to Brennessel's research. The recipe is included in the book, though Brennessel says she has never tasted turtle stew.
The book also looks at the turtles' habitats and threats to its existence.
`` There's also some open-ended issues raised,'' she said. `` It's not only a summary of what we know, but what we don't in the protection of the species.''
Her next book, due out in about a year, will be on a related topic -- shellfish agriculture in New England.
`` These guys live in similar habitats (to the terrapins),'' Brennessel said. `` A lot of it will be Cape Cod, but also Long Island and Rhode Island.''
She describes the book as a comprehensive look at the history and practices of the shellfish industry and the development of shellfish farming.
`` We enjoy fish, but how do we procure them'' while avoiding over-fishing? said Brennessel, who has had a recreational permit for shellfish harvesting for 25 years.
In the meantime, terrapin research will continue at Wheaton, with a handful of students currently working the marsh in Wellfleet. Others are being trained how to feed the turtles -- they love scallops, Brennessel said -- and will soon be teaching them how to swim. Still others will be working in the lab as Brennessel waits for the last of a nest to hatch to bring those terrapins on board and to gather more information on turtle DNA.
One of the aspects the lab students will be studying is whether the hatchlings were created by the same male, or whether they can have multiple paternity, since female terrapins can store sperm for four years.
For Brennessel, a self-described biochemist turned conservation biologist, delving into a new field and penning a book about it has been an interesting experience.
`` And I'm hoping the turtles will benefit,'' she said.
Wheaton professor tenacious about terrapins