A reader passed along the Minnesota Herpetological Society factsheet above, which was also tweeted by Christopher Smith, Certified Wildlife Biologist®, civil servant, business owner, #nonprofit board member, & #conservation advocate. He's co-creator of @HerpMapper, as well.
We share it here as part of our ongoing effort to educate readers about the unsustainable nature of Minnesota's commercial turtle harvest.
In late January, we posted MN's turtles extra slow in winter, but you can sign petition to end state's commercial harvest. Since then, close to 1200 people have signed the petition.
Follow the link in Mr. Smith's tweet to let the DNR know that you love Minnesota's turtles.
Show support for Minnesota’s turtles - Sign the Petition! https://t.co/g6i4IblSDO via @Change. 🐢 🐢
— Christopher E. Smith (@FieldEcology) January 25, 2020
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 stalled, 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.
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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