Annapolis Capital March 1, 2007

Terrapin harvest debate continues
By PAMELA WOOD, Staff Writer Though the O’Malley administration is working toward banning the harvest of diamondback terrapins, state lawmakers are still forging ahead with their own plans to protect the state reptile. Del. Virginia Clagett, D-West River, made her case yesterday with the help of two terrapins and a young constituent.As staffers from the National Aquarium in Baltimore took a pair of terrapins around the room, Ms. Clagett said the terrapins’ unique life cycle – they take a long time to mature and have low reproductive rates – makes it impossible for them to support a harvest.”They cannot be sustained with any commercial harvest,” she said.While the lawmakers were impressed by the terrapins – they oohed and aahed – they also appeared impressed by 11-year-old Chris Farrow.The Central Middle School sixth-grader collected 275 signatures in support of terrapins with the help of his dad, John.”I’ve never seen a terrapin in my life that is wild and I live on the bay, so that’s bad,” Chris said.All the hubub over the squirmy state reptile has to do with concerns that too many wild terrapins are being caught in the Chesapeake Bay.Though the terrapin has long fallen out of favor as a local delicacy, there is a strong and growing Asian market for turtle soup. As turtle species have been exhausted in Asia, seafood markets have turned to diamondback terrapins to meet the demand.The attention paid to terrapins this year is not unique, as lawmakers also tried last year to shut down the harvest.But the passion has increased a notch, since the Department of Natural Resources has changed its position from last year and now supports a moratorium, too.DNR officials, however, want to accomplish the moratorium through passing an administrative regulation. Some lawmakers and many terrapin supporters have said they don’t have much faith in the DNR to carry it out.That was on display later in the day during a separate DNR meeting on terrapins. For the better part of two-and-a-half hours, terrapin advocates skewered officials for their past missteps on terrapins.The DNR plans to formally issue its proposed ban by March 12, with the regulations in place by the end of May – well before the scheduled start of the terrapin season on Aug. 1.Meanwhile, the General Assembly will decide the fate of the terrapin bill before the end of the session on April 9. – No Jumps- Published March 01, 2007, The Capital, Annapolis, Md.
Copyright _ 2007 The Capital, Annapolis, Md. 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.”