As Asia's appetite grows, N.C. moves to protect reptiles
RALEIGH - The number of turtles taken from North Carolina jumped from 460 in 2000 to more than 23,000 last year, an increase that worries state wildlife officials so much that they're seeking legal protection for the animals.
A bill pending in the state legislature would give the Wildlife Resources Commission power to protect non-endangered reptiles and amphibians. It would also prohibit the commercial taking of certain kinds of turtles, including basking and sliding turtles, until the state can adopt limits.
Other states, such as Mississippi and Alabama, have stopped the commercial collection of turtles in recent years.
"We are very concerned about the taking of the turtles," Dick Hamilton, deputy director of the Wildlife Resources Commission, told a legislative panel that endorsed the bill last week.
"They can't sustain such harvest. It will lead to the destruction of the turtles."
The commission believes a third of the state's 21 turtle species are in jeopardy from collectors and habitat loss.
International market demand has increased the number of turtles taken in North Carolina, which has no regulations on commercial harvesting of freshwater turtles. Sea turtles are protected because they are listed federally as threatened and endangered.
Turtle trappers such as Sammy Strange of Louisiana are casting nets primarily for the yellow-bellied slider, a pond turtle often seen basking on logs.
The turtle, common to Greenfield Lake and other ponds, lakes and waterways throughout Southeastern North Carolina, is the current hot property in the international reptile trade.
Female yellow-bellied sliders bring $5 apiece, Mr. Strange said. He raises the turtles in ponds, incubates their eggs, then ships the hatchlings overseas to be sold as pets and consumed as food.
"That is the reason everybody is coming up there to catch them," said Mr. Strange, who ships turtles throughout the world. "There is kind of like an explosion going on right now."
Last year, he trapped 17,000 turtles in North Carolina, all for the price of one $5 permit. Mr. Strange also hauled 30,000 live turtles out of South Carolina in a cattle trailer.
"I'm a turtle man," said Mr. Strange, whose family has -farmed turtles in Jonesville, La., for 60 years. "As long as I can get a license, I'm going to chase them as hard as I can. I ain't leaving there until I have my truck and trailer loaded."
Andy Wood, education director for Audubon North Carolina and a New Hanover County resident, said the writing is on the wall about what will happen if North Carolina doesn't move to rein in the turtle trade.
"Louisiana used to be the place people went to to collect snakes in the 1960s and 70s," he said. "Now, the fact those same hunters are having to go far afield is basically because they've eliminated their own wild populations.
"It's a testament in itself to the unsustainability of what they're doing."
Turtles reproduce slowly and each species' survival is bolstered by the longevity of its adults, said Alvin Braswell, curator of herpetology at the N.C. Museum of Natural Sciences.
So removing the largest turtles in an ecosystem - the one's hunters aim for - in effect removes the breeding population, Mr. Wood said.
Trappers are doing nothing illegal, Mr. Braswell said, but the laws themselves need reviewing.
"If they can come take our turtles and make a big buck on it, they'll do it," he said. "Then they'll move on to another state."
Whit Gibbons, a researcher at the Savannah River Ecology Laboratory in Aiken, S.C., a research unit of the University of Georgia, said turtle meat is a status symbol in some parts of Asia, including China.
"It serves as a statement in some situations. Everybody here likes to have lobster, don't they? In China, it's turtle."
People in China pay handsomely for the chance to eat turtle soup or turtle jelly or take folk medicines made from ground-up turtle shells, including virility potions.
"Box turtles are especially cherished because they are regarded as old animals, which is considered important in Chinese culture," Mr. Wood said. "The older the turtle, the better, especially if it's a wild turtle."
The demand has depleted populations of wild turtles in parts of Asia and led to what is called the Asian turtle crisis, Mr. Gibbons said. With China's entry into international trade, turtles have become an international commodity.
"The market demand isn't going down, but the supply of turtles is going down because they are harder to find and more expensive in Asia," Mr. Gibbons said.
Staff Writer Gareth McGrath contributed to this report from The Associated Press.
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