DIAMONDBACK (U of Maryland, College Park, Maryland)

DIAMONDBACK (U of Maryland, College Park, Maryland) 26 April 06 Jersey drivers crush the turtle - Project aims to prevent terrapins from being run over on highways (Jeremy Tam)
Southern New Jersey drivers do not fear the turtle — they run it over.
An ongoing study by the Wetlands Institute, a non-profit organization promoting wetland ecosystem preservation, and The Richard Stockton College of New Jersey has found that a large number of terrapins are killed each year on major highways near the Jersey Shore.
The study’s founder, Roger Wood, a zoology professor at Stockton and the director of research for the Wetlands Institute, started the diamondback terrapin conservation project in 1989 to prevent more turtles from being killed.
“Many terrapins were being run over on the roads that go through the salt marshes,” Wood said. “There are a large number of roads and heavy traffic in New Jersey, especially with heavy tourist traffic in the summer.”
The terrapin population, ranging all the way from Cape Cod, Mass., to Texas, is currently being threatened by heavy traffic and commercial harvesting.
“There has been a 400 percent increase in commercial harvesting of diamondback terrapins over the last three years,” said Marguerite Whilden, founder and co-director of the Terrapin Institute in Edgewater, Md. “In one year, up to 14,000 pounds, or individual turtles, have been harvested for commercial use.”
The Terrapin Institute, which works to protect Maryland's state reptile, buys the turtles from commercial harvesters and releases them back into the wild.
Despite marking the turtles with bright yellow tags, Whilden said fishermen still catch the branded reptiles.
“Of all the animals I tag, 20 percent of them are still being reharvested,” Whilden said. “The tags are not difficult to see.”
Many of the turtles that are caught are turned into delicacies or are sold in New York as pets.
“It’s an endless market for harvesters because it’s so easy to catch them,” Whilden said. “The turtles are stacked in a bin at least 10 deep, where they sit there, rot and die in a live market.”
There is still hope for the university mascot, though. Wood and his associates have come up with new ways to monitor the turtles to prevent further reduction of the species.
“We've implemented tracking devices onto the turtles to observe where they have been,” said professor Rosalind Herlands, who joined Wood’s research in 1991. “We also put devices on the ones that hatch in the labs, and release them back into the waters when they are larger.”
Herlands said the public can aid the terrapins by supporting local conservation organizations and helping the turtles out whenever possible.
“We have to be supportive of the terrapins because the terrapins can't support themselves,” Wood said. “If you see a turtle on the road, stop and take it to the side. Watch out for snapping turtles though; they're bad for the fingers.”
http://www.diamondbackonline.com/vnews/display.v/ART/2006/04/26/444f5cfa25e4e