Ocean Sentry
(From jacksonville.com)- Species and many other freshwater turtles native to Georgia risk a future as food in overseas markets or as pawns in the global pet turtle trade, state wildlife biologists and riverkeepers in Southeast Georgia said. Their concern is two-fold. Native freshwater turtle populations will be depleted by continued unlimited and unregulated harvest. In addition, meat from wild turtles is likely to be contaminated with pollutants such as mercury, PCBs or other toxins, posing a public health risk, they said. “Every part of the turtle is used either for meat or for some sort of crazy type of home remedy for ailments, real or imagined.”
Georgia law allows the unregulated and unlimited harvest of freshwater turtles except for six species protected as rare, endangered or threatened, said Mike Harris, chief of the Nongame Conservation Section.
