Saving
the terrapins - DNR, residents fight to preserve diamondbacks
By SCOTT BURKE Staff Writer
While the shortage of blue
crabs is getting all the attention these days, turtles have slowly of course
become the subject of concern.
The Department of Natural Resources fears
that the population of northern diamondbacks is dwindling.
The DNR has no specific numbers on how
many terrapins are swimming in
"There is evidence that their
population is declining," said Marguerite Whilden, a turtle expert for
DNR.
For the past two years, Ms. Whilden has
been studying diamondbacks their habitats, mating habits and everyday life.
She's only just begun counting and
tagging them.
The terrapin, like the blue crab, is
part of the fabric of
Terrapins are the state reptile and the
But finding and counting them isn't as
easy as one might think.
"A lot is just not known about
these animals," she said.
What is known is that diamondbacks live
and breed in unpolluted salt marshes and tidal tributaries. A large terrapin presence, thus reflects the health of a wetland system.
The turtles can live as long as 50
years, but only one to three percent of diamondback eggs hatch, and the
survival rate for the hatchlings in the wild is just as low.
As more and more waterfront property is
being developed from sand into homes orbusinesses, diamondbacks have less area
to come ashore and lay their eggs.
Terrapins have gotten stuck in
revetments, tightly packed stones placed by the homeowners to protect their
shorelines from erosion.
Ms. Whilden said she even knows of cases
in which turtles have laid their eggs in gravel driveways.
In the past, turtles were often caught
and drowned in crab traps, but a state law implemented last spring requires the
use of a rectangular wire placed on the entrance funnels of crab pots. The hole
is big enough for crabs, but not turtles.
Armed with that information, Ms. Whilden
is trying to educate waterfront homeowners about the necessity of protecting
terrapins.
She wants homeowners to watch over them,
much like bird lovers do when they put up feeders.
One such turtle lover is Marianne
Guerra, who lives with her husband, Marvin, in the Summerwind community on
Mrs. Guerra, who has turned her
screened-in patio into a turtle sanctuary, has found several baby turtles,
which can be as small as a thumbnail, stuck in her pool skimmer.
"At first I put them back, but then
I realized they were very vulnerable, so I raised them," she said.
Mrs. Guerra usually keeps a young turtle
in an aquarium or a large tub filled with water and rocks until it's 2 years old, and then she releases it back into the
water.
She collaborated with Ms. Whilden a few
weeks ago when they released a 5-pound, 15- to 20-year old diamondback that
Mrs. Guerra's neighbors had found trapped between two rocks.
The turtle, in an attempt to free
herself, had scraped off her claws along with the tips of two of her feet. Ms.
Whilden said the turtle, who was pregnant, probably
crawled on shore to lay her eggs, but a storm washed her into the rocks.
The neighbors contacted Mrs. Guerra, who
then called Ms. Whilden.
Ms. Whilden took the turtle back to DNR
headquarters in
Soon, she'll have her own digs devoted
to turtle research.
The
Ms. Whilden also maintains a Web site on
her work, at www.dnr.state.md.us/terrapin.
Published