New Jersey tries to save the diamondback terrapin

A proposed state ban on the commercial harvesting of diamondback terrapins in New Jersey comes with dire warnings that the turtles could be teetering on the edge of extinction if more measures are not taken to protect them.

The medium-size turtle - which biologists say is the only species in the world that lives exclusively in brackish waters with some salinity - was recommended for strict global trade restrictions three years ago at the Convention on International Trade in Endangered Species in Bangkok, Thailand.

The diamondback terrapin, a reptile with a patterned brown, black, and sometimes orange and yellow carapace, lives only in salt marshes and estuaries from Massachusetts to Texas. The terrapin didn't grab the same headlines at the convention as the African elephant and the polar bear in 2013, but the U.S. Fish and Wildlife Service proposed that it be included in a list of threatened species because it is among the animals and plants "facing a higher risk of global extinction" and needs monitoring.

The terrapins were being sold for an average price of $80 each in Asian markets which covet them as a delicacy, an ingredient in traditional medicine, and as pets, according to the federal agency, which is pushing for the species to be granted special protection. The agency estimated that the 550 terrapins that were confiscated from illegal harvesters in New Jersey in 2014 were valued at more than $44,000 when sold in places such as Hong Kong, Taiwan, and Japan, the top importers.

"That incident was really a wake-up call, making us realize just how vulnerable this species had become," said David Chanda, director of the New Jersey Division of Fish and Wildlife, which participated in the investigation. "We have plenty of observational and anecdotal evidence that the species has been in decline. We need to take a step back and get a better handle on the measures that will be needed to restore this species."

The DEP published a regulation last week that would establish an indefinite moratorium on the harvest, one of the few that are still allowed on the East Coast. Larry Hajna, a DEP spokesman, said the terrapin population would also be assessed and studied to determine if a permanent ban is needed in the state.

The federal government classifies the terrapin, known as Malaclemys terrapin, as a species of "special concern" and the majority of the states where the terrapins reside have already imposed complete bans or strict controls. Maryland has prohibited all harvesting since 2007, and Delaware places a limit of four terrapins per day during its designated season. Some states, including Rhode Island, have declared the terrapin an endangered species.

New Jersey and New York are the last to take action on the terrapins. Currently, New Jersey allows the terrapins to be caught and collected within a season that goes from Nov. 1 to March 31.

Hajna said there had been reports of the turtle's duress, but the DEP, in consult with other states, has not yet undertaken a thorough study to determine the population trends. He said that concerns about its survival mirror those of the horseshoe crab, which years ago was added to the list of species that cannot be harvested because it plays a critical role in the survival of the red knot, a federally listed endangered species.

Once the studies are done, the DEP will decide whether the terrapin should be placed on a list to receive special protection. The proposed ban on the harvest would be the first step, Hajna said.

The study will also weigh what other steps should be taken to protect the terrapin since its survival is also imperiled by habitat loss and by traffic on the Jersey Shore roads the terrapin must cross to get to nesting areas.

Starting this month and ending midsummer, pregnant terrapins will be entering the highways in search of nesting grounds on the sandy beaches. Road signs caution motorists to watch for turtle crossings, but thousands are killed every summer, according to biologists who study the reptile.

Research shows that "as few as 20 percent of hatchlings successfully complete their journey from their nesting site to their salt marsh habitat" due to predators and vehicle strikes, the proposed DEP regulation said.

The terrapin's plight was highlighted in 2013 when the Fish and Wildlife Service alerted the state that it had discovered several harvesters had illegally trapped 3,522 adult terrapins from South Jersey marshes for sale to an aquaculture facility in Maryland for breeding. The facility then exported more than 14,000 offspring to Asian markets.

The terrapins are vulnerable to overharvesting because they "brumate," or hibernate in the mud, at shallow depths, in large clusters during the winters. They have been "found in densely populated aggregations of more than 1,000 individuals" in estuaries that are "easily accessible," the DEP regulation said.

Commercial harvesters currently are permitted to collect them by hand in New Jersey, but wildlife investigators found many terrapins were raked from the marshy bottom by illegal harvesters using crab dredges and were then scooped into nets.

After an investigation by state wildlife officers, a Galloway Township family and an associate were charged with the illegal harvesting of 550 turtles from the Great Bay in Atlantic County in December 2014. They were fined a total of $8,000 in municipal court last November, Hajna said.

Frank Mazzeo, 57, of Mays Landing; Robert Rae, 58, of Absecon; Eric Mazzeo, 30, of Hammonton; and Frank Mazzeo Jr., 20, of Mays Landing, pleaded guilty to violations of the wildlife protection laws and forfeited the dredging equipment they had used to trap the turtles, Hajna said.

Frank Mazzeo was unavailable for comment last week but said in a Press of Atlantic City story last year that he did not know that using a dredge to catch the terrapins was illegal. He said in the article that he supported restrictions but not an outright ban on harvesting, saying the trapping of terrapins and fishing were how he made a living. He also said he sold the terrapins for $4 to $8 each and could collect as many as 450 in one day.

After the discovery of the illegal harvesting, the Fish and Wildlife Service recommended the state "immediately close the season . . . and begin to develop a longer term solution," the DEP said. The season this year was curtailed in January.

The DEP's proposed ban is expected to be approved this summer, after the agency receives public comment, and in time to prevent the season from reopening in November, Hajna said. A public hearing on the regulation is scheduled for 6 p.m. June 13 at the Stafford Township Municipal Building in Manahawkin.

jhefler@phillynews.com

856-779-3224 @JanHefler