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Does anyone have the wording or a link to the wording of the SC bill on native turtles? A link for contacting legislators in SC?

Katrina

Monday, Mar 3, 2008
http://www.thestate.com/local/story/333649.html

Local / Metro

Posted on Sun, Mar. 02, 2008

Trapping ban | Protective shell urged for S.C. turtles

By JOEY HOLLEMAN - jholleman@thestate.com
Protecting S.C. turtles
River cooters, sunning on a log, rank near the top of classic outdoor South Carolina scenes.

With their dinner-plate-sized shells and long, yellow-streaked necks, the turtles reluctantly plop into the water and dive away when boats draw near. But some scientists worry the turtle-on-the-log image itself could be slipping away because of South Carolina’s lack of regulations on the capture and sale of freshwater turtles.

As the Asian market for turtle meat has boomed, other Southeastern states have put restrictions in place in recent years. Texas, one of the last holdouts, passed turtle export regulations last year.

“We’re the last state where it’s just open warfare on turtles,” said Scott Pfaff, curator of herpetology at Riverbanks Zoo.

“It’s the only animal exploited for food (in South Carolina) that requires no permit, so the species is being exterminated and South Carolina gets nothing.”

Pfaff and other turtle fans are pushing a bill — H.4392 — that would ban the sale of eight turtle species. A House subcommittee Tuesday is scheduled to take up the legislation along with an even more restrictive bill — H.3275 — that would make it illegal to export any turtles from the state.

Turtle trapping wasn’t a problem in the United States until Asian economies boomed in the 1990s, especially in China, allowing middle-class families to afford turtle meat. The appetite for the meat quickly reduced the population of many species in Asia to endangered status.

U.S. companies began to fill the void. World Chelonian Trust, an international turtle conservation group, reported more than 31 million turtles legally were exported from the United States from 2003 through 2005.

Most were raised in aquaculture farms, and some ended up in pet shops. But about 2.3 percent of those turtles, or 737,000 turtles, were captured in the wild. Most of those were bound for dinner tables overseas.

Because there are no regulations, S.C. officials say it’s impossible to come up with an accurate number of turtles taken from the Palmetto State. However, one Louisiana turtle farmer claimed to take 30,000 turtles from South Carolina in 2003.

State officials don’t necessarily believe that claim.

But they’re sure the losses to all trappers are in the thousands each year, more likely in the tens of thousands.

‘GETTING WORSE AND WORSE’

While that would be a tiny percentage of the state’s turtle population, the loss concerns scientists.

Turtles are long-lived creatures that reproduce late in life. “It’s not a species set up to sustain the kind of harvest we’re seeing,” said Steve Bennett, a herpetologist with the S.C. Department of Natural Resources.

Statistics on freshwater turtle exports from Texas indicate the population can be depleted quickly, Pfaff said. High levels of exports began in 2003 and peaked in 2004. The next year, exports of three common species — river cooters, Florida cooters and yellowbelly sliders — dropped by 75 percent.

Peter Paul van Dijk, director of tortoise and freshwater tortoise biodiversity for the Virginia-based Conservation International, has been pushing for more restrictive state laws.

“The situation is getting worse and worse in places where there are no restrictions on exploitation,” van Dijk said.

Some are less convinced regulations are necessary.

State Rep. William Witherspoon, R-Conway, has been fishing on Pee Dee rivers for decades. “In the summer, I see seven or eight turtles on nearly every log,” Witherspoon said. “I can’t see any decline in population.”

Earl Conner, a St. Stephen resident, used to make a few dollars helping Lowcountry landowners clear turtles out of their ponds. He then would sell the turtles to out-of-state processors.

He would put bait, often sardines, in wire devices similar to crab traps. The odor would draw in 20 or 30 turtles in a day.

The proposed legislation would have little impact on Conner now. He quit dealing with turtles because the market price has fallen in the past few years. Turtle experts acknowledge the export market is soft because Asian aquaculture operations have become better at raising their own turtles.

“With the price of gas now, I can’t make nothing off it anymore,” Conner said.

Like Witherspoon, Conner doesn’t believe turtle populations are shrinking.

“I pulled 950 turtles from one pond” in 2003, he said Tuesday. “I bet there’s 950 back in there now.”

MISSISSIPPI STOP FINDS S.C. TURTLES

Turtle scientists say the decline might not be obvious until it’s too late.

“By the time you notice it, you’ve reduced the population by 30 to 50 percent,” van Dijk said. “It’s very easy to push a population into decline, and it’s hard to reverse. It can take decades to recover.”

Prodded by scientists, most Southeastern states in recent years have placed restrictions on freshwater turtles. (Saltwater turtles such as loggerheads face a whole different set of pressures.)

Texas joined the parade last year, prohibiting commercial collection of all wild freshwater turtles from public land and waters.

In 2003, South Carolina was among the leaders, when the state Department of Natural Resources approved temporary special regulations that banned taking seven turtle species. But permanent regulations require legislative action, and a 2004 bill that would have continued the regulations died in the Senate.

Subsequent bills have failed to gather steam.

In the meantime, turtles leave the state much faster than their legs could take them.

In September 2005, Homeland Security officers in Mississippi stopped a pickup truck, suspicious about the legality of the hundreds of turtles in wire traps in the bed of the truck and a small trailer pulled behind it.

The driver, a Louisiana-based turtle wrangler, insisted his cargo was from South Carolina and was completely legal.

The Homeland Security officers called the S.C. Department of Natural Resources.

Bennett had to say the man had broken no S.C. laws.

Reach Holleman at (803) 771-8366.
Link

H. 4392

H 4392 General Bill, By E.H. Pitts
A BILL TO AMEND THE CODE OF LAWS OF SOUTH CAROLINA, 1976, BY ADDING SECTION 50-15-65 SO AS TO PROVIDE THAT IT IS UNLAWFUL TO BUY, SELL, OFFER FOR SALE, OR OFFER TO BUY CERTAIN SPECIES OF TURTLES, TO PROVIDE THAT IT IS UNLAWFUL TO POSSESS MORE THAN FIVE OF EACH OF THESE SPECIES AND NO MORE THAN AN AGGREGATE
OF FIFTEEN OF ALL SPECIES WITHOUT A PERMIT FROM THE DEPARTMENT OF NATURAL RESOURCES, TO PROVIDE EXCEPTIONS, AND TO PROVIDE PENALTIES FOR VIOLATIONS.

12/12/07 House Prefiled
12/12/07 House Referred to Committee on Agriculture, Natural
Resources and Environmental Affairs
01/08/08 House Introduced and read first time HJ-58
01/08/08 House Referred to Committee on Agriculture, Natural Resources and Environmental Affairs HJ-58

====================

A BILL
TO AMEND THE CODE OF LAWS OF SOUTH CAROLINA, 1976, BY ADDING SECTION 50-15-65 SO AS TO PROVIDE THAT IT IS UNLAWFUL TO BUY, SELL, OFFER FOR SALE, OR OFFER TO BUY CERTAIN SPECIES OF TURTLES, TO PROVIDE THAT IT IS UNLAWFUL TO POSSESS MORE THAN FIVE OF EACH OF THESE SPECIES AND NO MORE THAN AN AGGREGATE OF FIFTEEN OF ALL SPECIES WITHOUT A PERMIT FROM THE DEPARTMENT OF NATURAL RESOURCES, TO PROVIDE EXCEPTIONS, AND TO PROVIDE PENALTIES FOR VIOLATIONS.

Be it enacted by the General Assembly of the State of South Carolina:

SECTION 1. Chapter 15, Title 50 of the 1976 Code is amended by adding:

"Section 50-15-65. (A) It is unlawful to buy, sell, offer for sale, or offer to buy any turtles of the following species: yellowbelly turtle (Trachemys scripta), Florida cooter (Pseudemys floridana), river cooter (Pseudemys concinna), chicken turtle (deirochelys reticularia), eastern painted turtle (Chrysemys picta), spiny softshell turtle (Apalone spinifera), Florida softshell turtle (Apalone ferox), and common snapping turtle (Chelydra serpentine). It also is unlawful for a person to possess more than five of each of these named species of turtles and no more than an aggregate of fifteen turtles of all species without a permit from the Department of Natural Resources. A person violating the provisions of this section is guilty of a misdemeanor and, upon conviction, must be punished by a fine of two hundred dollars. Each turtle bought, sold, or possessed in violation of this section constitutes a separate offense.

(B) The provisions of this section do not prohibit the sale, offer for sale, or purchase of the yellowbelly turtle (Trachemys scripta) species and the common snapping turtle (Chelydra serpentine) species if these turtles were taken from a private pond that is a permitted aquaculture facility."

SECTION 2. This act takes effect upon approval by the Governor.

A BILL
TO AMEND THE CODE OF LAWS OF SOUTH CAROLINA, 1976, BY ADDING SECTION 50-5-135 SO AS TO PROVIDE THAT IT IS UNLAWFUL TO EXPORT FOR COMMERCIAL PURPOSES LIVE SEA OR FRESHWATER TURTLES WHICH ARE CAUGHT OR CAPTURED IN THE WILD IN THIS STATE AND TO PROVIDE PENALTIES FOR VIOLATIONS.

Be it enacted by the General Assembly of the State of South Carolina:

SECTION 1. Article 1, Chapter 5, of Title 50 of the 1976 Code is amended by adding:

"Section 50-5-135. It is unlawful to export for commercial purposes live sea or freshwater turtles which are caught or captured in the wild in this State. Any person violating the provisions of this section is guilty of a misdemeanor, and upon conviction, must be punished by a fine not exceeding one thousand dollars or by a term of imprisonment not exceeding ninety days. Each violation is a separate offense."

SECTION 2. This act takes effect upon approval by the Governor.

All,

Here is more proof of the slippery slope. Why do we need to ban anything? Regulate maybe but ban, hell no. Here again the Animal Rights influenced academics, zoo herpers and agency biologists are at it again. They want to take away your rights and privileges to harvest a sustainable amount of turtles. They use the fear of the Asian market to justify taking away your rights. I don't see any provisions in these proposed regulations to allow sustainable take and sale, and the protection of captive breeding. I would write the SC reps in this story and tell them not to support these regs. If there is non-biased scientific evidence on SC turtles that can be used to establish reasonable bag limits then so be it but bans are wrong.

Mike Welker
El Paso, TX

The wording could be better - no need to ban the sale of anything, but commercial harvesting needs to stop for many of the species. Box turtles just cannot continue to come out of SC left and right - they don't reproduce at the rate of many of the other species. Box turtles cannot sustain commercial collection, period.

Katrina

Katrina,

You are wrong. The sale of one turtle or one herp is commercial. Every species has sustainable harvest amount. Once that species is harvested it doesn't matter what you do with the animal. Now, the problem with the box turtle situation is that academics and others have been pushing an agenda. Almost every paper used to push this agenda is filled with assumption, opinion and data skewing. Box turtles may not be able to sustain a high rate of collection but the answer is reasonable bag limits, PERIOD! The data used to determine this must come from the state in question not a paper written about a fringe population at the extent of a species range. We need to stop over-harvest. As long as development and roads are taking their toll then collection and sale should be allowed. Protecting a species just for the sake of protection is wrong. Tying the hands of hobbyists who preserve genetics in captivity is wrong. You need to get over this commercial harvest is bad rhetoric. Over-collection is bad NOT commercial sale.

Mike Welker
El Paso, TX

Notice I said "commercial harvesting". I won't argue about aquatic turtles, because I don't know enough about thier population dynamics in the wild, but for box turtles, I'm confident enough to say that the harvesting of wild box turtles for direct sale to the general public is not sustainable.

If a population can't sustain a certain percentage of adult loss per year and the roads and subsidized predators are already taking that out, then you have no arguement for harvesting. Add in subsidized predators taking out a large percentage of the eggs/hatchlings for a population, and the situation gets even worse.

Katrina

Katrina, I agree with you, keep putting out sound advice based on your experience.
Mike, one adult female taken takes out the wild population capacity of that female, for life. maybe the bag limit should be one pair from the state every ten years?
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Todd Hughes

Mike, I have a basic question. Based on your research what would you say the sustainable number for ornate box turtles would be. In others words what would do you feel is a reasonable bag limit ? How would you like this to be monitored ?

Ernie Eison westwoodreptiles.com

Ernie,

That is a complicated question. First off, I don't have any research to back up my opinion of what bag limits should be and neither does academia. I would want to know how many collectors there are. I would want to know where they are collecting from. And I would need to know how they are collecting them. I would look at any studies that discuss abundance and are geographically relevant. I would look at their range. I would look at reproductive information, from both the scientific literature and hobbyist data.

That being said, a yearly bag limit of say 10 per person doesn't seem unreasonable. That is a bag limit of 10, per person, from the wild NOT a possession limit. I would want an unlimited bag limit in areas slated for development. I, also, can not see how collecting from the road causes any negative effect on populations.

Enforcement would be some work. Paper trails are crucial, as well as, enforcement in the field.

That is the quick answer.

Mike Welker
El Paso, TX

Your right it is very complicated and you touched on the major issues. Now using the annual bag limit of 10 per person as an off the cuff bench mark , what would you say was your average take in previous years (ornate box turtles ). Also based on your experience what are population density's generally like in the areas you collect from ?

Ernie Eison
westwoodreptiles.com

Mike? A question was posed that deserves an answer.....
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Todd Hughes