Show support for Minnesota’s turtles - Sign the Petition! https://t.co/g6i4IblSDO via @Change. 🐢 🐢
— Christopher E. Smith (@FieldEcology) January 25, 2020
When Bluestem's editor was a wee girl growing up on the shore's of Le Sueur County's Lake Emily, she was told that turtles hibernate in winter.
Now we learn that's not true. The Minnesota Zoo tells the true story in What do turtles do in the winter?:
You may be familiar with turtles swimming among lily pads and basking on logs in the summer months, but where do they go when the weather turn cold? In Minnesota winters, freshwater turtles retreat underwater where temperatures remain more stable and most importantly above freezing. Most turtles are relatively inactive buried in mud at the bottom of lakes and rivers, although some are known to move around a little under the ice.
So how does an air-breathing turtle remain under water and ice for several months? Well… it breathes through its bum. Technically called “cloacal respiration”, the same opening used to release waste products and eggs also has another purpose. Flush with blood vessels, the cloaca permits the exchange of gas (oxygen in and carbon dioxide out) as cool, oxygenated water moves across this area.
As turtles are ectotherms (also known as cold-blooded), their body temperature matches that of the environment. A cold, stationary turtle has low energetic needs, and the small amount of oxygen they draw out of the water is often enough to get by until spring. If oxygen levels become depleted, turtles have the option of switching to anaerobic respiration (metabolizing without oxygen). However, this comes with a buildup of lactic acid so that when they emerge in the spring, they are essentially one giant muscle cramp. As such, these turtles are desperate to bask in the sun after a long winter to ramp up their metabolism and eliminate acid by-products.
When those turtles quit with the bum-breathing and return to their basking, they face the possibility of being captured and sold by turtle trappers. We wrote about this issue during the 2019 Minnesota legislative session in posts like Vang bill will end MN commercial turtle selling and MN Senate omnibus environment and natural resources bill expands commercial turtle harvest. In the end, both proposals died, but the basic threaten to Minnesota's turtles remains:
But turtles in Minnesota continue to be under pressure, says wildlife biologist Christopher Smith, who sits on the Board of Directors for the Center for North American Herpetology (CNAH).
On March 5, Smith testified in favor of first-term Brooklyn Center DFL state representative Samantha Vang's HF749, a bill that end the renewal and transfer of turtle seller and turtle seller's apprentice licenses. Recreational turtle licenses to gather turtles for personal use would remain legal and a person with "an aquatic farm license with a turtle endorsement or a private fish hatchery license with a turtle endorsement" could "sell, obtain, possess, transport, and propagate turtles and turtle eggs."
According to Smith, many states have banned commercial turtle sellers, and those conservation measures have caused more pressure to be put on Minnesota's turtle population--and harvest pressures are not sustainable for the slow-growing creatures.
Smith continued his crusade for Minnesota's turtles during the #HotTopics part of Friday's DNR Roundtable:
.@mndnr fisheries is responsible for turtle harvest, yet completely neglects that responsibility. It’s time for change. #DNRroundtable 🐢 🐢 https://t.co/0uU2zURyk4
— Christopher E. Smith (@FieldEcology) January 24, 2020
Asked @mndnr fisheries chief... what will it take to get @mndnr on board with a ban on commercial turtle harvest? The science is clear, it’s unsustainable. Response: ...we don’t have data... #DNRroundtable pic.twitter.com/G2qlr1bgNO
— Christopher E. Smith (@FieldEcology) January 24, 2020
If no data is really the excuse... probably shouldn’t allow unlimited commercial harvest by those with licenses. Irresponsible wildlife management.
— Christopher E. Smith (@FieldEcology) January 25, 2020
Here is one of the more recent reviews of the topic: https://t.co/NYbIbjJxW1
— Christopher E. Smith (@FieldEcology) January 25, 2020
Another friend of turtles shared this article with us: Magnitude of the Freshwater Turtle Exports from the US: Long Term Trends and Early Effects of Newly Implemented Harvest Management Regimes.
The proposed ban is for the commercial turtle harvest only, not the recreational plucking of a painted turtle for a staycation at the kids' aquarium. Please consider clicking through and signing the petition at the top of this post. Here's the text of the ask in the petition:
Minnesota’s commercial turtle harvest should be banned. Don’t ship our turtles to Asia for food and pets. The current practices are not sustainable and will have a negative impact on our turtle population.
The Minnesota DNR did not support a ban during the 2019 legislative session, but will have another chance to support the legislation in 2020. DNR claimed to not have enough data to assess the impact of commercial harvest. If true, DNR should error on the side of caution and ban the unlimited harvest of MN turtles. Let them know we love our turtles and they need to be protected.
Thanks!
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