Maryland - Score One for the Terrapins: The Story Behind the Overdue Closure of the Chesapeake Bay’s MD Diamondback Terrapin Fishery

We won, and so did the terrapins. The word was out, the State Legislature closed down Maryland’s terrapin fishery. Our battle to remove the diamondback terrapin, State reptile and the mascot of the University of Maryland, from a list of commercially harvestable seafood was at last over. I was ecstatic.

Half a decade previously a former Maryland Governor recognized that the poorly regulated commercial harvest of terrapins in the Chesapeake Bay was a concern. He appointed a Task Force to look into the problems and to suggest recommendations to resolve the issues. He also proclaimed a statewide Diamondback Terrapin Day. I was honored when asked to serve on this task force and our recommendations were later adopted as an official Governor’s mandate. Maryland’s Department of Natural Resources (DNR) basically ignored all of the mandate’s key recommendations, and under a new Governor the one position in State Fisheries overseeing the terrapin harvest was terminated along with Terrapin Day. Even though various people and organizations continued to try to work with DNR to improve the situation not much happened.

Revised regulations and a growing demand for live turtles by Asian markets actually increased both the numbers of Maryland fishermen reported harvesting and number of turtles going to market at lest twenty-fold. Under the revised regulations there were no limits as to how many terrapins an individual could send to market, and dealers in other parts of the country were requesting terrapins by the ton to ship to Southeastern Asia.

The frustration of being ignored by State Fisheries resulted in a marked shift in strategy. A small group from the private sector founded the Chesapeake Terrapin Alliance and immediately began a public awareness campaign. We soon discovered that most Marylanders were completely unaware that the terrapin fishery was even still active. The various members of our new organization had diverse backgrounds allowing the group to simultaneously approach the issue from a number of fronts. We had lawyers, biologists, educators, conservationists, turtle clubs, and people who could work with the media. Individuals set up web sites, wrote editorials circulated petitions, spread the word over the Internet, and spoke out at public hearings. Defenders of Wildlife, the Coastal Conservation Association Maryland and the National Aquarium learned of the effort and joined our forces. Thousands of petition signatures and hundreds of letters were sent to the state’s Governor protesting the commercial harvest of terrapins. Our timing was good, it was an election year and the governor who had a real disconnect with conservation was replaced and a new director for DNR was appointed. Our net effort resulted in constant media coverage, and letters to state representatives. The legislative branch stepped in removing State Fisheries’ regulatory authority to manage terrapins and the fishery was immediately closed.

Without grants, research proposals, graduate students, and long drawn out peer reviews and revisions of academic manuscripts the Chesapeake Terrapin Alliance simply closed down the terrapin harvest. Yes, having sound biological information and legal knowledge was critical, but the tide really turned when voters read our editorials about Maryland terrapins being boiled alive in Chinese kitchens. Phones in Annapolis started to ring.

Even so, Maryland’s DNR fought the idea of their regulatory authority being taken away right up to the day the bill to protect terrapins passed. When they pleaded with the delegates who sponsored the bill that closed the commercial harvest of terrapins, they were publicly told that they "had their chance to correct the regulations and they blew it."

Loss of nesting beaches, drowning in crab pots, and highway mortality are still a problem for terrapins. It is interesting that the Bay’s commercial fishermen were suggesting that the State address these issues instead of closing the fishery. These are big-ticket problems, but the closure of the expanding fishery was the biggest and most easily remedied problem facing Maryland's terrapins. The same individuals and organizations responsible for getting the protective legislation passed are now working toward solutions for these other problems.

All this raises the question as to why conservation-minded citizens need to fight the very regulatory agencies assigned to protect their native wildlife and to get them to do what is right. The outcome reaffirmed my long held belief that the excuse, "a lack detailed scientific investigations", should not be used as a tactic to continually stall decisions that are intuitively clear based on simple common sense. It is refreshing to see that a hand-full of everyday citizens become empowered when their collective efforts are pooled and focused.

David S. Lee, The Tortoise Reserve, White Lake, NC 28337