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THE DIAMOND-BACK TERRAPIN 

 IN NORTH CAROLINA 



BY Robert E. Coker 



The University of North Carolina 



CONTENTS 



Page Page 



Value and Local Fishery 219 Natural History and Propagation 226 



Kinds of Terrapin 223 Summary 229 



Experimental Propagation 225 Bibliography 230 



VALUE AND LOCAL FISHERY 



Of marine and estuarial turtles only the diamond-back terrapin has had 

 significant commercial history in North Carolina. Occasionally the valuable 

 green turtles are taken, particularly the smaller ones, or "chicken turtles"; 

 but the green turtle is here near the northern limit of its normal range. 

 Pope (1939) says, however, that it was abundant in the North Carolina 

 sounds before it was "decimated by turtle-hunters during the nineteenth 

 century." The generally large loggerhead turtles are much more common 

 but are not a market item. Some persons locally eat and esteem them. The 

 loggerhead is the only sea turtle that habitually lays eggs on the beaches of 

 our region. Its interest to North Carolina is for the material it readily affords 

 for scientific studies of development and growth. The smaller Kemp's gulf 

 turtle or "bastard turtle," sometimes, unfortunately, called "hawksbill," 

 is found occasionally but is not valued. The true hawksbill, or tortoise-shell 

 turtle, valued for its heavy covering of richly colored shell, has rarely been 

 recorded from the Carolinas. The largest of all turtles, the trunk turtle or 

 leatherback, is rare in our waters and without known commercial value in 

 this country.^ We are not concerned here with the freshwater snapping 



I. In Fishery Statistics of the United States, 1945, green turtle was reported from Florida 

 (12,800 pounds, valued at $1,280) and Louisiana (9,300 pounds, valued at $i,395)- Loggerhead 

 turtle was reported as a commercial product from Florida in the small amount of 15,000 pounds, 

 valued at $1,645, and Virginia, 7,400 pounds, valued at $400. The hawksbill was marketed from 

 New Jersey in the amount of 800 pounds, valued at $8. However esteemed "green turtle soup" 

 may be, it is evident that sea turtles are commercially insignificant. 



219 



