Trinity River (Texas) Turtle Population Dwindles As Trappers Hunt Them

Monday, March 16, 2009
By JESSICA MEYERS / The Dallas Morning News

The culprits for the turtles' demise aren't tossed-aside soda bottles as much as dedicated hunters who have spent years dredging up whole populations from the river, wildlife officials say. And some environmentalists fear those turtles - sickly from years of pollution - are being sold to local Asian markets and shipped overseas as a toxic delicacy.

Studies on freshwater turtles are rare, so the river's regulars are also its experts.

While canoeing the river 15 years ago, Charles Allen says he spotted rows of sunbathing red-eared sliders and soft-shell turtles. Now, the Trinity tour guide said he's lucky if he sees two or three in a quarter-mile.

"I believe it's because of trapping - some legal, but most illegal," he said, rowing tentatively down the patchy-green river in search of a fading few.

A 2007 Texas Parks & Wildlife Department regulation was supposed to stop the depletion by banning commercial turtle harvesting in public waters. But turtle enthusiasts say a loophole in the measure - which still allows collection of three species in private waters - leaves murky boundaries and lax enforcement. The result puts humans and the ecosystem at risk.

"This is about health and conservation," said Carl Franklin of the Amphibian and Reptile Diversity Research Center at the University of Texas at Arlington. Like many researchers, he worries about the elimination of turtles from a biosphere that depends on them. The dearth of any species leads to an imbalance that places other animals and plants at risk.

Ultimately, no one knows what would happen if the turtles disappear, Franklin said.

"Who in the world is out there watching? No one is. There's no enforcement."

Questions remain

That may be what's facilitating the poaching, said Heather Prestridge, who has spent the past two years tracking Texas' reptile and amphibian trade for her master's degree at Texas A&M University. "Illegal trade exists, but to what degree we can't tell."

Also Online

But Christopher Jones, an environmental lawyer who works on Trinity River conservation efforts, said his interactions with turtle dealers, local game wardens and river riders such as Allen have convinced him that the trade continues in North Texas.

Along with the Arizona-based Center for Biological Diversity, Jones spearheaded a movement to further extend the harvesting ban. The Texas case is now part of a larger campaign to stop freshwater turtle export.

The evidence is anecdotal, but the significant turtle decrease and the controversial regulation leave much unanswered.

Harvesting for commercial purposes is still allowed in private waters as long as the dealer has a permit. But the line between public and private water is nebulous. Is it the city's lake, the individual's tributary, the state's stream?

Accountability also comes into question. The current regulation allows the collection of up to six turtles for personal use. The state's wildlife department says it doesn't deal with health issues. And the Texas Department of State Health Services says it doesn't test turtle toxins, though it does warn against consuming fish along much of the Trinity River.

Before the 2007 ban, Texas live turtle exports averaged almost 100,000 a year, according to the U.S. Fish & Wildlife Service. In 2004 alone, 122,610 turtles were exported from Dallas/Fort Worth International Airport, most to Hong Kong. The year the ban went into effect, only 8,882 left the state, the majority headed to mainland China and Hong Kong.

Taking a first step

Matt Wagner, who helped impose the regulation as the Texas Parks' wildlife diversity program director, said an ongoing five-year study will do more to determine the ban's effect.

He called the ban in public but not private waters "a first-step approach ... a test-case scenario that we could monitor over the next couple of years."

Private land owners who feared turtle overpopulation kept the regulation from extending to all waterways, he said.

About 40,000 freshwater turtles were collected or purchased by non-game dealers in Texas from 2005-06, down to 511 a year after the ban went into effect.

The numbers don't reflect reality, said Allen, who found the makings of a crude turtle trap last fall on the river. He considers this proof that the clandestine trade continues.

Local wildlife officials admit they're unable to consistently monitor the turtle supply on the water and in the store.

"The paper trail is sometimes the weakest part," said Capt. Garry Collins, a Texas Parks and Wildlife game warden who oversees several counties in North Texas. He said he's short about four workers in the Dallas area, meaning the agency has "been stretched too thin to take proper care."

The licenses are easy to fake, he said, so "the best thing a person can do is ask where the turtle comes from and see if the shop owner is upfront with them."

Asian markets

Phillip Vo, the head of the meat and seafood department at Tian Tian 88 Supermarket in Richardson, said he's well aware that illegal trade occurs. He's been contacted by nonlicensed Texas dealers but said he wants to avoid "big trouble" and therefore ignores their requests.

"People go fishing, and they see the turtle price and think it's good money," he said, but fear of even misdemeanor violations prevents him from partaking.

The soft-shell turtles puttering in a tank at the back of the store are from Florida, Vo said. They go for $9.99 a pound and weigh four to five pounds. He sells about 60 turtles in less than two weeks, mostly to Chinese patrons who cook the meat in soups and stews. Turtles are thought of by some Chinese as natural Viagra.

Those in favor of a complete ban say they're most concerned about major exporters like "Bayou Bob" Popplewell, a dealer from near Santo who exported hundreds of thousands of turtles abroad before the ban, according to U.S. Fish & Wildlife records.

Popplewell, who runs Bayou Bob's Brazos River Rattlesnake Ranch, has hosted seminars on catching "turtles for cash" and trained hunters on the methods of tortoise capture. He was arrested last year for selling alcohol without a license. He was marketing his rattlesnake-enhanced vodka as an ancient Asian elixir.

Popplewell did not return calls for comment.

The dwindling supply of freshwater turtles in Asia has likely factored into demand for U.S. turtles.

A recent study by Traffic, a wildlife trade monitoring network, found that unregulated trade in Indonesia has led to the virtual annihilation of Southeast Asian box turtles, another freshwater reptile.

The turtle demand has also picked up in North Texas, said Eric Chen, who sells them at his Asia World Market in Plano.

"In the wintertime when your body is cold, the soft-shell turtle is good for you," he said. He's now selling up to 150 pounds a month of the rubbery meat, which tastes somewhat like pork.

Chen, who said he's a licensed seller along with the Texas-based company from which he buys, didn't know where the turtles came from until he checked the invoice.

"I guess, Florida," he said, reading the slip of paper.