Absence of wild terrapins seen with my own eyes…

[Scott McDaniel]

Scott McDaniel

July 5, 2007 at 12:22 pm #25061

Turtles have always been one of my passions in life but terrapins specifically became one of my all time favorites after accidentally catching them in little cage pots while crabbing as a kid. Their beauty and uniqueness captivated me. My family has been making trips down to the Wye River (which feeds the Chesapeake on the Eastern Shore) for as long as I can remember. Even the times where I wasn’t lucky enough to catch one (they were always large females) to observe, maybe take a few blurry pictures with an old disposable, and let back into the water to be about their business; I would at least see a few of their smiling white beaks poking up out of the water watching us. I would ALWAYS at least see a few. Now, being a bit older and rapidly growing in my photography skills, I decided to go out looking for my favorite turtle in the wild with a bit more knowledge and a decent camera in my hands. Everything last Sunday was perfect; beautiful weather, warm water, and not a cloud in the sky. We ended up pulling about 30 huge blue crabs out of the water which is always a treat. I made several stops to look through some marsh pools and keeping a keen eye out for a bobbing diamondback’s head as we drove the boat around all day. Sadly, I saw nothing, not even a glimpse, and I was looking hard. Years ago, I would count at least a half dozen to even a dozen, just in our little area we had staked out. My grandfather who goes crabbing all the time hasn’t reported an accidental terrapin catch in one of his pots for a couple years now. So I am only to assume that there has been some commercial harvesting on this river over the past few years and the effects are now showing. I will return there several more times this summer to verify this, but this was what appeared to be a very sad sight. I post this as an example of the effects I have so far seen with my own eyes and how crucial the recent ban was in Maryland. I am truly thankful for that. Now let’s just hope it is enforced and we can do something about their habitat destruction. I would love to help raise terrapins for a head starting & release program down the road to help turn around the damage that has been down to the populations. Time, it seems, is what healed them in the earlier part of the 20th century, I guess it could work again, now that they may have a chance. -Scott McDaniel

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