Petition to ban commercial turtle harvests gets Game and Fish airing

By The Arkansas Democrat-Gazette

LAKE VILLAGE — Arkansas' aquatic turtles are not imminently threatened by commercial harvesting, the fisheries chief of the Arkansas Game and Fish Commission said Thursday.

Discussion of Arkansas' regulations governing the commercial harvest of wild freshwater turtles was prompted by a March petition filed by the Tucson, Ariz.-based Center for Biological Diversity, which seeks to end commercial turtle harvests.

The center, which petitioned Arkansas and seven other states, argued in a 20-page request that a strong Chinese demand for turtle meat makes it necessary to protect U.S. turtles and the people who eat them.