The Chinese Feast on Virginia’s Turtles
With the coming of spring, snapping turtles have emerged from their winter homes in the mud, ready to reproduce and to spend the summer trolling ponds, lakes, rivers and streams. They’re a hearty species with few natural enemies. Now, however, turtles which can live more than a hundred years are in danger.
As a graduate student at Virginia Commonwealth University, Benjamin Colteaux spent four months each year setting net traps for turtles in three parts of the state.
“The turtle enters through a hole, and then they can’t get back out again,” he explains. “The traps are equipped with flotation devices so the turtles can breathe, and they’re also equipped with punctured sardine cans, so they get a little snack for their effort as well.”
It was, he admits, a tough job that required a lot of driving…
“The turtle isn’t really part of the average American’s diet any longer – a little bit in Louisiana, a little bit in Florida, a little bit locally here, but turtle is not on many menus,” Colteaux says.
In China, however, turtle meat and blood are prized food. “China has eaten through their turtle populations, and the snapping turtle being the second largest freshwater turtle in the United States makes it a good target to fill that international demand.”
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Crime & Punishment
Egypt:- Stolen endangered turtles returned to Mediterranean Sea by Environment Ministry
Miscellany
UK:- Tortoise owner’s surprise as pet wanders home…six months after going missing
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Photo from Benjamin Colteaux.
