China Turns To Florida After Eating Turtles To Near-Extinction
Exporters are shipping up to 3,000 pounds of softshell turtles a week out of Tampa International Airport, according to the Florida Fish and Wildlife Conservation Commission. A Fort Lauderdale seafood company is buying about 5,000 pounds of softshell turtles a week. They're worth about $2 a pound to the harvesters.Um, Florida? Get on the ball. Perhaps some restrictions are in order. The article quotes one man who often fishes for turtles around Lake Okeechobee and sells to dealers, which then sell to either local restaurants or Asia. These restaurants, as far as I can tell, are not South Florida-local; a search for "turtle" turned up only the dessert variety, and a search for "cooter" came up blank. Anyone know where one can sample soft-shell turtle?"Asian countries are causing the extinction, the near extinction or the endangerment of every species of turtle they have over there, so now they're turning to the United States to supply their insatiable demand for turtle," said Matt Aresco, a turtle biologist from the Panhandle.
The trend — which biologists worry threatens species survival — has surfaced at places like Newnan's Lake near Gainesville. Last summer, as Gary Simpson jotted down the license plate number of a suspicious-looking pickup, he wondered about the bulging sacks in the truck bed. Simpson, who manages a tackle shop, worried poachers had filled the sacks with fish.
After he used his pocket knife to slash open a sack, "Turtles started piling out," he said. There were at least a dozen in each of the 20 sacks, he said. "It was pretty obscene, it really was."
By the time the truck's owners had returned to the dock, he said, "those turtles were crawling all over the parking lot." Wildlife officers summoned by Simpson were waiting — but they had to let the turtle-catchers go because they had broken no law.
Other states — Alabama and Texas, among others — have recently restricted or banned the harvest of turtles. As those states have cut off access, the harvesters have focused more and more on Florida's turtles, Aresco said.
The harvesters target the larger turtles, the ones old enough to reproduce, Aresco said. Wipe out those and soon all the turtles will be gone.
China gobbling up Florida turtles [St. Petersburg Times]
Photo: Town Homes of Marlwood
Comments
Regarding the article of softshell turtles and asian consumption. While shopping at a local asian supermarket here in Flushing, a section of Queens located in NEW YORK CITY, i saw a bucket of turtles for sale. I took a quick look to see what type and happened to notice that they were soft shell and a few other that I couldnt recognized. I made my purchase which was not turtles by any means and decided to check on the internet and bang I came across this article. I just wanted to know if these turtles are endangered and if so, can the supermarket get in trouble and if it's yes to both, who needs to be notified? I am an animal lover and dont like to see the needless death of animals especially if the are endangered.
Posted by: need to know | October 18, 2008 08:55 PM