MIAMI -- Florida freshwater turtles are being illegally caught and exported live in increasingly large numbers to keep up with demand for their meat, their supposed medicinal purposes and their value as pets, state wildlife officials said this month.
The black market trade is putting a strain on the state's already vulnerable freshwater and terrestrial turtle populations, and officials say they expect demand to grow along with the dollar amount poachers in Florida can fetch.
Depending on the species, harvesters can make anywhere from $300 to more than $16,000 for a single turtle, officials say.
The appetite for freshwater turtles in Asian countries like China, Indonesia and India is already measured in tons per day, according to the Florida Fish and Wildlife Conservation Commission, and it has reached the point where it is unsustainable. While China has large farms raising turtles, the demand for wild caught adult turtles in that country is exploding.
Turtles live a long time, some species from 80 to more than 100 years, and they reach sexual maturity later in life than many other animals. This combination makes their populations particularly at risk to not only poaching, but to development, traffic and predatory animals, as well as sea level rise and climate change.
Additionally, freshwater turtles are falling victim to a fatal viral disease that began in the St. James River watershed in 2018 and spread to the Kissimmee chain of lakes this year, the commission announced this week.
They face these risks, however, only if they hatch.
George Heinrich, executive director of the Florida Turtle Conservation Trust in St. Petersburg, said up to 90% of some turtles' eggs are lost to predators.
"It's really tough for these turtles to persist," Heinrich said.
At the same time, penalties for people who get caught catching and selling turtles in the state, a practice that's been illegal since 2009, are relatively light, making it a high-yield, low-risk crime.
"If you get caught selling drugs, you're probably going to get jail time," Col. Curtis Brown, head of law enforcement for the Florida Fish and Wildlife Conservation Commission, said Thursday. "With wildlife violations, it's rare you're going to get jail. Every day, people are out hunting them. If someone can get $15,000 for one turtle, they're going to do it."
By 2005, Florida officials began noticing a spike in the commercial harvest of the state's 23 native freshwater species as countries in Asia were significantly winnowing their own native turtle populations, Brown said.
"As globalized markets fluctuate relative to supply and demand, the billions of people that desire turtles around the world create pressure on Florida's wild turtles," Brown wrote in a Feb. 20 memo accompanying a presentation he showed at the Fish and Wildlife Conservation Commission's monthly meeting in Tallahassee.
The increased harvest quickly became a problem, prompting the 2009 law making it illegal to sell wild-caught turtles in Florida.
"Florida's abundance of different species and significant populations make the state an attractive target for collectors and illegal harvesters," Brown said.
A Section on 03/01/2020