658 



MARINE PRODUCTS OF COMMERCE 



thus. In an enclosure about 40 by 70 feet, divided into several smaller enclosvires, 

 as many as 500 or more large turtles have been kept at one time. 



When a turtle is to be taken from the pen, a rope noose is dangled in the water 

 until it catches the flipper of a turtle as it comes up to breathe. The rope is at 



Fig. 31-2. A green turtle being 

 lioisted from the pound to prepare for 

 shipment. 



iC curtesy U. S. Fish and Wildlife 

 Service') 



once hauled taut and the animal is hoisted to the dock, the precaution being 

 taken to render it helpless by turning it on its back before the noose is cast loose. 

 Turtles are shipped lying on their backs, and to prevent their righting themselves 

 all 4 limbs are bound together by a rope yarn passed through a hole punched in 

 each flipper. This method of keeping them overturned is necessary, though 

 deemed cruel; but the piercing of the flippers is not absolutely essential and may 

 be eliminated. 



Turtles to be used for canning are slaughtered on the dock each day at 3:30 p.m., 

 when an inspector is present to see that the butchering is done in a correct and 

 sanitary manner. None is killed until the desired number has been removed from 

 the pens and placed about 1 foot apart on the dock. One person rapidly strikes 

 the head and 4 flippers of each turtle with a sharp axe, nearly severing each. 

 Two men with sharp knives then dexterously cut away the plastron and remove 

 the entrails; water is thrown on the carcasses during the operation to wash away 



