Christie Signs Law Protecting Diamond Terrapin Turtles

Governor Christie passed a law recently banning the harvesting of diamondback terrapin turtles — the only turtle species to inhabit the Hackensack River.

The legislation protects the turtle as a non-game indigenous species and closes the harvest season indefinitely. The species has been on the decline due to illegal harvesting, habitat loss, and predation.

The protection follows two partial season closures ordered by Bob Martin, commissioner of the state Department of Environmental Protection. The closures were done after massive harvesting of the turtles to meet market demands, especially in Asia, were discovered.

The turtles get their name from the diamond-shaped pattern on their shells. They live exclusively in coastal marshes, including in the Meadowlands.

Commercial harvesting of diamondback terrapins had been from Nov. 1 through March 31 and done by a small numbers of harvesters by hand. In 2013, one harvester took more than 3,500 terrapins from two locations in South Jersey using a commercial crabbing dredge. The turtles were sold to an aquaculture facility in Maryland. The turtles were used to raise 14,000 terrapins and sell them overseas.

“That incident was really a wake-up call, making us realize just how vulnerable this species had become,” said Division of Fish and Wildlife Director David Chanda. “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.”

Diamondback terrapin turtles — Wikipedia Commons