Help Save Wild Turtles

I never really understood the desire to eat turtles. I get that chicken and pigs and cows are raised as food, and while it’s usually not humane, it’s something that everyone’s familiar with.

Kids are taught “Old MacDonald Had a Farm” before they can read and write, after all, and while the whole smiling family farmer in the dell and the happy cows and all of the other BS is usually—well, BS—these days in light of the factory farms that riddle the country, at least people know that the food comes from living creatures, and that they’re specifically bred for it.

Do we even have turtle farms made to produce the reptilian stews that people like to dine on? Any barns out there full of turtles, cages build around ponds as “factory turtle farms,” milk machines pumping whatever comes out of a turtle into a big tank or anything? I sincerely doubt it. That’s why there are wild turtles being harvested.

Take the freshwater turtles in Tennessee, for example. They’ve been harvesting wild turtles to export, as well as to sell within the community, as food sources. Skipping the fact that these turtles are full of pesticides, PCBs and mercury and are wholly unsafe to eat, this practice is unsustainable for the turtle species.

Freshwater populations are getting smaller and smaller every year. Since turtles live to a ripe old age and breed late in life, they don’t reproduce quickly enough to replenish their own population. They have very low survival rates and any time they are overharvested, they simply do not bounce back like other species might.

In Tennessee more than 12,000 turtles are being captured annually to contribute to the problem. And for what? So somebody can have a weird shell-without-shellfish sandwich? That’s probably not something you eat from a turtle, but still, it’s just as silly and appalling as eating other already-threatened species to death.

Pollution is also increased during turtle harvesting. Road mortality, water pollution, and habitat loss, as well as killing or harm by fishery devices, are all side effects of commercial turtle harvesting.

The problem is so big, in fact, that Florida has already banned the commercial harvesting of freshwater turtles. Kudos to Florida for taking such a giant step for turtles and for conservation! Now it’s your turn, Tennessee.

You can help by asking the Tennessee Wildlife Resource Commission to approve the rule that’s been proposed to ban turtle harvesting in Reelfoot Lake. The ban also calls for an end to snapping turtle collecting all across the state. The Center for Biologicial Diversity is hosting a campaign at their website; you can click here to sign on to their letter and add your own comments.