Turtle Update from Matt Aresco

Matthew Aresco, PhD., is director of the Nokuse Plantation Conservation Reserve in Florida.  Last week we did a story about Matt's efforts to keep soft shell turtles from being eaten into extinction.  (You can read it here.)  Those efforts include persuading the Florida Wildlife Commission to limit the commercial take of the turtles to one a day per person.  At present, vast numbers of Apalone ferox are snared with baited hooks attached to trotlines, some stretching for miles. They are then bagged, boxed and shipped to Asian gateways such as Hong Kong and Taiwan.

I sent Matt an email asking him if any progress has been made with members of the commission, and inquired about the current status of the turtles.  This is what he wrote back:      

As we have told the FWC, their present rules do not protect wild turtles from over hunting and wild turtles cannot be hunted sustainably, even at low numbers, because of their unique life history traits.  All studies of long-lived reptiles indicate that high reproductive rate does not equate to high replacement rate of adults in the population because of low survival of eggs and hatchlings. Population models based on actual life history and demographic parameters for Florida softshells indicate that even very low levels of take of subadults and adults will lead to significant population declines in just 10-20 years.  Turtles take 8 to 15 years before they can reproduce and live for decades, so taking adults has a disproportionate impact on populations.   It is a very bad idea to take adult turtles in large numbers from any ecosystem as they are extremely slow to reproduce and have very low success rates of nests and hatchlings.  The harvest of freshwater turtles on a commercial scale has rapidly increased in Florida in the last few years and that it will make common species uncommon, and could, in fact, produce additional threatened species.  Asian countries have overharvested to the point where most of the turtle species are endangered or extinct.  So they're buying them from us.  (Matt's email continues, after the jump...) 

There is no limit by FWC on the number of commercial hunters, so tens of thousands of turtles could be shipped to Asian markets each year.  The state has virtually no idea how many turtles are harvested each year.  Commercial harvesters are not required to report their take to state officials.    

A frequent misleading statement that is being perpetrated by FWC and repeated in the press is that "90% of turtles exported from Florida are farm-raised, so that indicates few are being taken from the wild for their meat".   Although 90% of the individual turtles exported from Florida may be from farms, these are nearly all tiny hatchlings that contribute very little to the gross weight of adult turtles exported for use as food.  FWC staff has indicated that farmers rarely raise their hatchlings up to a size suitable for the meat trade. An FWC Law Enforcement Intelligence Bulletin from March 2008 reports 1600–3000 lbs of live turtle flown out of Tampa weekly. It is unlikely that these are all farmed hatchlings (that only weigh about 1/3 ounce each). The same FWC bulletin suggests that similar amounts of turtle are flown out of Orlando, Ft. Lauderdale, and Miami on a weekly basis. Available data suggest that softshell turtles shipped live from Florida weigh about 6–8 lbs each. If 8000 lbs of turtle are flown out of Florida each week, this could represent at least 1000 adult turtles. However, it could be much more. A story from Bay News 9 dated October 11, 2008 says that the Thomas Fish Company in Polk County has increased its purchases of wild caught turtles from 1000 lbs a year to 10,000 lbs a week. The Miami Herald recently reported that a Lauderhill fish dealer buys 3000 lbs of live turtles per week.

I expect that the FFWCC will take the right course of action within the next few months.  Governor Crist heard the warnings of turtle biologists and the concerns of thousands of Floridians who appealed to him to end the mass hunting of turtles.  We are grateful for his forward thinking and strong leadership to ensure the protection of Florida’s wild turtles from exploitation.  We have full confidence that the FFWCC will act as quickly as possible to finalize the rule ending commercial harvest of freshwater turtles.

I want to thank Matt for taking the time to respond to my questions in such detail, and encourage ProPup readers to visit Nokuse Plantation's website.