TIMES-DISPATCH (Richmond, Virginia) 08 July 08 Bay's 'glamour species' gets help from W&M team - A study on the health of the at-risk turtle may be Virginia's first (Rex Springston)
Williamsburg: A beloved, hard-shelled icon of the Chesapeake Bay appears to be in trouble, and we're not talking crabs or oysters.
The diamondback terrapin, Maryland's state reptile and mascot of the University of Maryland, is also a vital part of Virginia's valuable salt marshes.
Named for the concentric rings on its shell, the diamondback is known for its beauty and a long history that includes a nearly disastrous stint as a gourmet dish.
"It's the glamour species, I think, of Chesapeake Bay," said Randy Chambers, a wetlands ecologist at the College of William and Mary.
But the docile turtle with the cheeky grin is falling victim to development, which destroys its nesting beaches; crab pots, which drown them; and thriving populations of raccoons, which eat their eggs.
Virginia's game department gives the diamondback a Tier II conservation rank, meaning it has a "high risk" of disappearing from the state.
Willem M. Roosenburg, an Ohio University terrapin expert, said a population he studies in Maryland's Patuxent River has dropped 75 percent, mostly in the past decade.
No one knows for sure how the turtle is faring in Virginia because there has been little research -- until now.
"We got one," said Megan Rook. "It looks like a little male."
Rook, a W&M graduate student in biology, had reached out of a canoe to pull a crab pot from Felgates Creek in the Yorktown Naval Weapons Station. Inside was a 5-inch-long diamondback.
Rook and four undergraduates are studying diamondbacks at four sites in Virginia, including one at the base, to determine how they are doing. The study is believed to be a first for Virginia.
Rook, 24, of James City County, measured the turtle, weighed it, filed an identifying notch into its shell and photographed it.
The turtle opened its mouth in a grin that said it was unhappy, but it didn't fight.
"This turtle is being very cooperative," Rook said.
As the researchers catch and release more and more turtles, they will be able to estimate population numbers at the study sites. Rook's work is funded this year through a $20,000 federal grant.
The diamondback is the only North American turtle that lives exclusively in brackish waters. In Virginia, it mainly inhabits the slightly salty tidal streams that feed the bay -- places you also can find crabs.
A crab pot is a wire trap the size of minirefrigerator. Crabs enter through a hole and can't find their way out. Unfortunately, diamondbacks do the same. They are so curious they even swim into pots that aren't baited.
They drown because they can't get to the surface for air.
To catch diamondbacks for study, Rook uses crab pots fitted with chimneylike tubes, through which trapped turtles can swim to the surface.
Maryland requires "turtle excluders" on recreational crab pots. An excluder is a plastic plate with a rectangular opening about the size of a large harmonica. It is designed to allow crabs, which are nearly flat, to swim into the pot while excluding most turtles, which have higher, domed shells.
Virginia does not require excluders.
Another W&M student, undergrad Bret Bronner, is studying the effectiveness of excluders. So far this summer, pots without excluders caught about 50 turtles. Pots with them caught two.
Ruth Boettcher, a biologist for the state Department of Game and Inland Fisheries, said Bronner's work may help the agency seek requirements for turtle excluders.
"In the near future, we will definitely get the ball rolling," Boettcher said in a telephone interview.
Chambers pulled his canoe onto land and hiked under an eagle nest, where the wetlands ecologist found a diamondback shell. The big birds love turtle meat.
Diamondbacks are an important part of the food chain in salt marshes -- valuable wetlands that serve as nurseries for crabs and fish. Marshes also filter out pollutants that harm the bay.
"I think having turtles is a positive sign of ecosystem health for our wetlands," Chambers said.
Some scientists say diamondbacks literally help hold the marshes in places by eating a snail that can kill important marsh grasses.
On top of all that, the diamondback is a turtle with a history.
Colonists and slaves ate them. In the 19th and early 20th centuries, turtle soup was such a popular gourmet dish that trappers drove the animals to the brink of extinction.
The public's tastes changed, the soup declined in popularity, and the animals bounced back. Today, Virginia and Maryland ban diamondback harvests.
But development, including rocks and bulkheads on shorelines, rob the turtles of nest spots. Raccoons, thriving on people's trash, eat the turtles' eggs. The propellers of boats slice up turtles.
University of Maryland fans have a saying: "Fear the turtle." But in the real world, it's the turtle that needs to worry.
A study on the health of the at-risk turtle