Petition asks for end to snapping turtle hunt (Via Herp Digest)

Midland Free Press, Orilla, Ontario, 9/30/11 by Gisele Winton Sarvis - Snapping turtles may go the way of the endangered spotted turtle if hunting them remains legal, says local naturalist Bob Bowles.

The snapping turtle has been listed as a species at risk since 2009, but the provincial government has not removed them from the legal hunting list. Snapping turtles can be taken with a daily limit of two and a possession limit of five by anyone with a valid sport or fishing licence.

"Some people spend their whole weekend going out with their bare hands and a knife in their teeth, jumping into ponds, grabbing a turtle and cutting its throat," Bowles said. "This is their weekend entertainment."

Bowles has recently started a petition demanding that turtle hunting be banned. The petition is available at Scales Nature Park, local conservation group offices and MPP Garfield Dunlop's office. The initiative has the backing of environmental heavyweights Ontario Nature and the David Suzuki Foundation.

The petition says "we the undersigned petition... that all hunting of snapping turtles, an Ontario and nationally listed species at risk, be banned under the Ontario Fish and Wildlife Conservation Act." It will be sent to the Legislative Assembly of Ontario.

Bowles believes that snapping turtles should have been removed from the list of hunt-able species when they were listed as a species at risk, but this has not happened.

The other problem with hunting turtles is that no one is keeping track of the numbers of turtles in a given area or the numbers of turtles hunted, so the impact to turtle populations is unknown.
"They keep track of numbers for moose, deer and wolves," Bowles said.

Even without hunting, turtle and amphibian numbers are diminishing because their wetland habitats continue to disappear with expanding urban development, Bowles said.

And thousands of turtles are killed each year in the province through road kill. Slow-moving turtles often seeking roadside sand banks to lay eggs cannot get out of the way fast enough to survive a fast-moving vehicle.

Some people intentionally run over turtles, said Bryna Belisle, special projects co-ordinator for Scales Nature Park in Orillia.

"A certain per cent of the population are going out of their way to hit turtles," she said, referring to a scientific study done in Long Point that proved this. Long Point has the highest turtle mortality caused by cars in the province.

Of the eight species of turtles that call Ontario home, seven of them are species at risk. Only the Midland painted turtle remains as a self-sustaining healthy population.

"There is still pressure on the species," Bowles said.

"Turtles have been on this planet for 300 million years and now they are having a hard time surviving."

The spotted turtle and the wood turtle are endangered. The softshell, stinkpot and Blanding's turtle are threatened species. The map turtle is listed as special concern.

"My biggest fear is than my grandkids will never see turtles," Bowles said.

It's not too late for the snapping turtle, said Jeff Hathaway, owner of Scales Nature Park in Oro-Medonte. He explained that the higher the population of a given species, the easier it is to rehabilitate. The lower the number of animals left of a species, the harder it is to bring them back.

"The overall numbers are going down, but there is still enough left to turn it around," he said.

What's needed to keep turtles alive and well is positive intervention from humans. The Ontario Multi Turtle Recovery Team is one organization helping turtles by working to maintain or rebuild wetlands, monitor turtle populations and promote awareness to educate people about the plight of these ancient animals.