By Jo Ann Abell
Snapping turtles are in a bit of trouble and the biggest threat is man
While snapping turtles are the embodiment of turtles who shared the planet with dinosaurs for a time, they are now obliged to share it with the human species, a far bigger threat to its survival. Each year many females are hit by automobiles in their search for nesting sites, and hatchlings on their way back to the water are frequently run over. Often vehicles will not stop, and some drivers deliberately hit the turtles because they dislike snapping turtles or just enjoy running over them. Nests on roadsides and in gravel pits are often destroyed by vehicles and road grading.
Added to the gauntlet of obstacles snappers face, the species is a game animal in Virginia, and many are harvested each year for the food market. Increasing demand for turtle meat, both in this country and abroad, mainly China, presents a real and present threat to this species. In some states, snapper harvest season coincides with the egg-laying season, which hampers reproduction. Females are mostly shipped overseas to augment their aquaculture programs. Males are butchered, canned, and exported as processed meat.
Lack of meaningful regulations and overharvesting over the last decade has taken its toll on Virginia’s snapper population. In 2013, more than 125,000 pounds of snapping turtles were commercially harvested from Virginia’s waterways (actual harvest, including recreational collection, is likely higher). Based on annual permit reports, the 2013 harvest (7,926 turtles) almost doubled the 2012 harvest, and represents a nearly 1,300% increase in annual recorded harvests since 2002. High turtle prices, combined with tighter restrictions in neighboring states and weak regulations in the Commonwealth, have contributed to an increase in the number of commercial harvest permits sold to out-of-state watermen over the past 15 years.
From 2009 to 2013, out-of-state harvesters represented one quarter of the total number of permits issued, while responsible for as much as 70 percent of the annual harvest (approximately 360,000 pounds). As reported in the Richmond Times-Dispatch a few years ago, one of the harvesters that turned to Virginia’s waters when regulations were tightened in their home state was Tommy Fletcher of Rock Hall, Maryland. Having harvested about 22,000 pounds during the June-through-September season the previous year, Fletcher was quoted as saying, “I’d say you have plenty of snappers. How could I work away from home all summer year after year if the harvest wasn’t staying consistent?”
“There’s definitely a mentality that there are plenty of snapping turtles out there,” says J.D. Kleopfer, a herpetologist (reptile and amphibian expert) with the Virginia Department of Game and Inland Fisheries (DGIF), the state’s primary wildlife regulatory agency. Actually, local populations of the snapping turtle have declined significantly in recent years from overharvesting. Kleopfer points to other iconic and once-plentiful turtle species, like the Central American river turtle, the pig-nosed turtle, and the alligator snapping turtle, that have experienced steep population declines from overharvesting and are now at historically low levels across much of their ranges.
Due to new harvest regulations, snapping turtle populations are slowly recovering.
In 2013, researchers from Virginia Commonwealth University (VCU), with funding from DGIF’s Nongame Fund and VCU, began a four-year study on the impact of commercial harvesting on snapping turtle populations in the state. “Team Snapper,” led by Benjamin Colteaux, Ph.D., with VCU’s Integrative Life Science program, spent many months catching and tagging turtles and collecting and recording indices of health and growth to determine the impact of wild turtle harvesting. In addition to the impact of commercial harvesting on the snapper population, the team also looked at the toxicology of the turtles, as these animals can show heightened levels of mercury depending upon age and location and are being exported into the human food market.
The bottom line of the study was that current harvest levels were too high, especially in coastal waters. “Without better regulations placed on the industry, local populations of snapping turtles would have been seriously damaged, impacting both the sustainability of the industry and more importantly, the ecosystems in which these turtles live,” says Kleopfer. “Their impact as an apex predator in these aquatic systems is not fully understood, but we can look at other ecosystems where apex predators, such as wolves and sharks, have been removed or significantly reduced and see how ecosystem health declines as a result.”
New regulations now underway will help stop the decline of the snapping turtle populations in Virginia.