Looking for Commercial Turtle Trappers
- Thread starter Andre
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You can believe what you wish based on your observations in your limited vision man. Just understand that virtually every research study that's been done disagrees with you. To include every state that has prohibited exploitation for commercial sales. The Dow was petitioned last year to prohibit the commercial sale of turtles and do you know what their response was, "we don't have the funding to do the study". Yep sounds like they're keeping their finger on the pulse of the population and trading alright.
What I don't see is the difference between a damn turtle shell and a coon pelt. Hell you can eat the fuggin turtles.
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You mean besides the fact that turtles take 12 years to reach sexual maturity. They have a extremely low survival rate as it is. And over harvest can take 25-30 years to recover. Unlike coons who reach sexual maturity at 11 months, breed like rats, easily adapt to encroachment, and have proven to be survivors of even severe harvest. Yeah other than that no difference at all.
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And? That proves nothing other than coons are very capable of recovery. Completely different species with completely different survivability and tolerance for harvest.
I'm not advocating for the ban of sport turtle trapping. I'm advocating for regulating or banning the commercial purchase of wild harvested turtles. Unlike now where Ohio is one of the few states to have nothing at all managing such exploitation.
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That proves that there aren't many people commercially trapping turtles.
Number of trappers is largely irrelevant. Number of turtles harvested is what matters.
Unfortunately.
"
Ohio requires commercial turtle harvesters to maintain records, including the number,
location of capture and length of turtles taken from the wild by species.OAC Ann. 1501:31-25-
04. However, because Ohio has no reporting requirements, no data on the number of turtles
collected in the state is available.
To address this information gap, Ohio asked purchasers of annual fishing licenses
whether they had harvested snapping or softshell turtles in the last five years, and whether they
sold any turtles that they harvested. Survey responses revealed that 1.5 percent of license holders
harvested turtles in the last five years, and about 40 percent of those harvesters indicated that
they sold turtles. Approximately 4,000 license holders indicated that they had sold turtles in the
last five years (Carter 2014). Given that these harvesters have no bag limits, the harvest could
pose a significant threat to turtles without state officials ever knowing, given the lack of
reporting requirements or population monitoring.
Limited vision. Ooooookaaayyy. No, I can't keep my eyes on the entire state or multiple states. But if you can't see the stark contrast of my observations compared to the average Joe (haha), I simply don't know what to tell you. I would bet my truck that I spend more time in wetlands than 90% of Ohioans. Both public and private. That's not meant to sound arrogant. It's just the facts. And if someone was out there exploiting turtles beyond reason, trust me... I WOULD SEE IT.
Not sure how many times I have to repeat this. I'm not saying the potential for a problem isn't there! I'm saying it isn't CURRENTLY there. If you feel so strongly that it is, where is your petition or comments for the annual DOW open houses? Why no sky-is-falling outcry over turtles all these years while leading the deer mismanagement movement? How many serious turtle trappers do you know? How many do we have on this website, which is supposedly the "cream of the crop" when it comes to all things killing and grilling? Don't worry.... I'll wait.
I mentioned turtles are a CITES species, which means they are monitored on a federal/national level. I said nothing about the DOW keeping their finger on the pulse.
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I really don't know what else to say. This is a meaningless debate. I'm not against more stringent regulations. I've said all along I'm as big of a fan of turtles as anyone. I would HATE to see them disappear from the landscape. But IMO your doom and gloom mentality is unwarranted at this point and you really have no idea how much harvest pressure is being put on Ohio's turtles. You can quote all the research studies you want. There's no shortage of turtles in Ohio.
So 4,000 people said they sold at least one turtle, at least one time, during a span of 5 years... Out of somewhere between 800,000 and 885,000 total license holders PER YEAR. Yea, sounds like a really big problem to me.
Iowa_Buckeye
Smartest person here
Schu72
Well-Known Member
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Never once did I claim there was cutrently a shortage of turtles in Ohio. Nor did I ever claim they were currently being over harvested in Ohio. Nor did I claim that commercial harvest was currently a problem in Ohio. So I''m not sure just who you're trying to argue that point with.
What I have been saying is commercial harvest of turtles is directly linked to severe depletion of populations. This is an undeniable fact the world over.
Commercial harvest in the US is becoming a huge problem leading the majority of states to ban or severely regulate the practice. This is also an undenyable fact. The reason China and Vietnam want US turtles is because they are now largely extinct due to over harvest in those countries. Yet another undeniable fact.
The US turtle trade has exploded in just the past five years from 50k per decade to over 200k a year. It's doesn't take a biologist to tell you that's not good. By the way, they have, in study after study.
I don't doubt that you have spent more time in the marsh than anyone. unfortunately that gives you no more authority on the subject than I have with regard to how many people take a dump and don't wash their hands at my office building each day. Despite spending all day there every day neither of us can claim our observations to be anything credible. So let's leave the science to scientists.
The time to place protections around a species is not after they've been destroyed. Especially species that take generations to recover. As of now Ohio has zero protections with regard to commercial harvest except a size limit. They haven't even begun to implement a method by which to monitor the impact much less protect them. If we don't the end result is over exploitation for Asian markets just as they have done in their own countries.