Florida's turtles

June 23
The (Lakeland) Ledger, on protecting Florida's turtles:

Florida's turtles are so slow they can't get out of their own way. That sounds like a joke, but it's not. Slow-moving turtles are especially vulnerable to large-scale harvesting, and there's a growing global demand for turtle meat. That's a prescription for extinction.
But no longer. This week the Florida Fish and Wildlife Conservation Commission slammed the door on commercial turtle harvesting. The commission banned the taking of alligators, snapping turtles, Suwannee cooters and other imperiled species, and it limited the taking of softshell turtles to one per day for personal use.
"This decision may be one of Florida's greatest conservation stories," Commissioner Brian Yablonski said. "This is a legacy vote."
Dr. Matthew Aresco, a turtle expert who directs Nokuse Plantation, a private wildlife refuge in the Florida Panhandle, said the vote was "a wise, forward-thinking move to protect Florida's turtles from mass commercial hunting."
In the period from 2000 to 2005, exports of snapping turtles shipped from the United States increased 1,200 percent; shipments of softshell turtles rose by 270 percent.
Having often been critical of the commission, especially for its ambivalence toward Florida manatees, we are happy to commend it for moving so decisively to protect Florida's turtle species.
Several Floridians engaged in turtle harvesting objected to the commission's action, but as a St. Petersburg Times story pointed out, "the new rules allow turtle farms to collect turtles to reproduce in captivity and thus become self-sustaining without taking turtles from the wild."
"When you're over-fishing, you're not only hurting the species, you're hurting the food chain as well," argued Commissioner Ron Bergeron.
Florida's turtles were easy pickings, but no more.
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