FL Gov. Crist asked to stop turtle harvest (Asian market demand threatens extinction)

[seafan]

Crist asked to stop turtle harvest

By Jim Ash
FLORIDA CAPITAL BUREAU CHIEF

November 20, 2008

Biologists Wednesday urged Gov. Charlie Crist to impose an immediate ban on the commercial harvesting of wild turtles before a skyrocketing demand in Asia dooms them.
Although little research has been done on the size of Florida's turtle population, an emergency rule that limits the catch to 20 soft shell turtles per day isn't working, the scientists say.
"The rate of capture is still too high and the data that we have suggests that this is unsustainable," said Matt Aresco, director of the 50,000-acre Nokuse Plantation preserve in Walton County.

.....

The Florida Fish and Wildlife Conservation Commission adopted the 20-per-day limit in September at the urging of the scientists. Their studies show that only about 10 percent of Florida's exported turtles come from the wild. The rest come from turtle farms, according to state regulators. Environmentalists dispute the figures.

Commissioners are scheduled to discuss permanent regulations at a workshop in Tallahassee today.

The threat emerged about two years ago as Chinese and Asian fresh-water turtle populations collapsed and the industry turned to U.S. suppliers in the South to meet demand.
The turtles are prized for their meat as well as their shells and other body parts, which are ground into potions for folk remedies.

.....

Commercial harvesters argue that they have access to only a tiny percentage of Florida's 7,000 freshwater lakes and that turtles are teeming in private water bodies where they can't go. Environmentalists dispute the claim.
"Seventy-five percent of soft shell turtle habitat is actually accessible to harvesters," Aresco said.
A group of 35 scientists sent a letter Monday to Gov. Charlie Crist pleading with him to intervene.

.....

The emergency rule was originally put in place for a year while regulators study the issue. The commission has since moved up the deadline for proposing a final rule to April with a vote in July.

It is past time to put a halt to the wholesale sell-off of this state's resources and infrastructure to foreign markets and interests. Stop this now.

[seafan]

1. Update: Movement building to save turtles: Crist on board.

Governor Crist calls for a ban on freshwater harvests as ecologists sound an alarm.

By Steve Patterson, The Times-Union
November 27, 2008

.....

As state wildlife officials mull new restrictions on harvesting the reptiles, Gov. Charlie Crist has joined a chorus supporting a ban on commercial turtle fishing in fresh water.
"With the world demand for freshwater turtles, it is clear that the commercial harvest of our wild populations of turtles could result in long-term impacts very quickly," Crist told the Florida Fish and Wildlife Conservation Commission's chairman in a letter last week.
Without fast action, "we could be in grave danger of irreparable damage to our turtle population," he added.

The governor recommended an eventual harvest ban days after dozens of scientists from at least 10 states appealed to him for help.
"The methods they're using have the potential to devastate populations," said Matthew Aresco, an ecologist who was part of that group. Aresco, the conservation director at a nature preserve in the Panhandle, said depleting turtle populations could change the mix of other animals and plants in many waterways.

Last month, a game officer in Brevard County discovered two turtle harvesters in a part of the St. Johns River where commercial fishing is illegal.
The men, who were from Orlando, had strung five miles of heavyweight fishing line fitted with 4,900 baited hooks, according to a report by the game officer. As the line was collected, the officer freed 33 turtles snared on the hooks, the largest about 40 pounds, the report said. The men were given notices to appear in court and released.

.....

After generations of small-scale harvesting as an element of down-home dining, turtles have been exported by the thousands recently to vast Asian markets.
Turtle advocates fear they'll be exploited to dangerous levels. A turtle-conservation group, the World Chelonian Trust, previously reported it had used open-records laws to document 1,413 commercial shipments of turtles from Miami to foreign countries over about three years.

.....