Ilene Eberly and Roger Wood

For more than a century, human activities have adversely impacted the lives of diamondback terrapins (Malaclemys terrapin), whose range is restricted to coastal salt marshes along the Atlantic and Gulf coasts of the United States. Nowhere within the range of this species have these impacts been more severe than along the coast of southern New Jersey, In the late 1800’s and early 1900’s, over hunting of terrapins throughout much of their range drastically reduced their numbers. Subsequently, natural nesting habitat (sand dunes on barrier beach islands) has been virtually eliminated along the New Jersey coast. Large numbers of terrapins drown in crab traps in New Jersey’s coastal waters (and elsewhere). Substantial numbers of nesting females also get killed every year by motor vehicles. Research and conservation programs at the Wetlands Institute have led to the development of a simple, inexpensive and effective terrapin excluder device for use on crab traps. Barrier fences have been installed along miles of roads to prevent nesting females from wandering into traffic and becoming road kills. Frequent road patrols during the nesting season remove hundreds of terrapins from harm’s way before they are crunched by motor vehicles. Potentially viable eggs are removed from road-killed females, incubated, and hatched. These hatchlings are then head-started and released. Efforts are currently under way to create suitable new nesting habitat for terrapins. Public support of and participation in terrapin conservation activities has been essential to the success of our conservation efforts. We have partnered with The Richard Stockton College of New Jersey, the Philadelphia Zoo, state agencies, local municipalities, as well as school teachers and their students to create regulations, develop public exhibits and education programs, carry out research and conservation activities, and enhance public awareness of the plight of terrapins.
Poster Session

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