From Letters to the Editor, Baltimroe Sun July 1, 2006

Can DNR be sure turtles are plentiful? The Sun’s article “DNR acts to protect state reptile” (June 21) concludes with a quote from Maryland Watermen’s Association President Larry Simns. But the logic Mr. Simms uses for maintaining the status quo for the terrapin harvest does not quite ring true. “With shoreline property owners putting in bulkheads [on shorelines], terrapins don’t have a place to lay their eggs. There’s nothing in the regulations that says they have to protect the spawning area and that they can’t build,” Mr. Simns argues. While Mr. Simns is correct about the regulations, he also cleverly redirects the reader’s attention to the overwhelming problems of development and population increases. This takes our focus away from the part of the terrapin equation we have control over – the loss of breeding animals, specifically the biologically all-important females. The Sun’s article also notes that Michael Slattery, Maryland’s assistant secretary of natural resources, “acknowledged that the agency doesn’t have statistics on how many of the turtles are in the bay or how many are taken out.” But Mr. Slattery later says, “We agree that additional conservation action is warranted, but the scientific basis for that is lacking. Despite what people would have you believe, they’re abundant.” And this leads to an obvious question: If the DNR lacks statistics on the number of turtles in the bay, how does it know they are abundant? Alexandra Siess Arlington, Va. Marguerite WhildenThe Terrapin InstituteP. O. Box 51Edgewater, MD 21037Voice 410 370 9171FAX 410 757 9268www.terrapininstitute.org “It is not the strongest of the species that survive, nor the most intelligent, but the ones most responsive to change.”