NATURALIST'S 



NOTEBOOK 



W 



hen the first days of 

 spring warm the waters of the salt marsh 

 near Davis, a rather striking turtle claws 

 from her winter hibernation in the mud. 

 Her first intent is to find food. Her 

 powerful forelegs force her bulky 

 carapace through the stalks of Spartina 

 cord grass. A hunter, she looks for prey 

 — small creatures inhabiting the water 

 and grasses. 



She is a diamondback terrapin 

 {Malaclemys terrapin), a resident of the 

 intertidal marsh. Not long ago, the 

 diamondback — locally common along 

 some areas of North Carolina's coast — 

 was itself a hunted creature, and the 

 future of this salt marsh citizen seemed 

 unsure. 



Diamondback terrapin populations 

 hit their lowest numbers around the turn 

 of the century, when gourmets consid- 

 ered the reptile a delicacy. The finest 

 restaurants from Baltimore to New York 

 carried terrapin steaks and turtle soup on 

 their menus. Railroad magnate Diamond 

 Jim Brady, notorious for the volume of 

 his meals, is known to have dined one 

 evening on two terrapin steaks, along 

 with three bushels of Lynnhaven oysters, 

 six crabs, two tureens of green turtle 

 soup, seven lobsters, two roasted 

 canvasback ducks, one sirloin, one platter 

 of pate, 2 pounds of candy and 2 gallons 

 of orange juice. 



With appetites like Brady's increas- 

 ing demand, coastal fishers spent their 

 free time searching for wild diamond- 

 backs, some using trained dogs to find 

 them. Prices were lucrative: Males and 

 small females commanded $10 to $12 

 per dozen; large 6-inch females averaged 

 $36 to $40 per dozen. According to an 



Salt Marsh 

 Citizen: 



The Diamondback 

 Terrapin 



By Lundie Spence 



Malaclemys terrapin 



article in The Scientific Monthly in 1920, 

 one dozen females larger than 8 inches 

 brought as much as $125 wholesale. 



To ensure a supply of diamond- 

 backs, some researchers and fishers 

 raised them on "farms." Scientists at the 

 old Fisheries Laboratory on Pivers Island 

 built concrete pens and winter houses to 

 learn how to breed, raise and feed 

 diamondbacks. The hatchlings thrived 



when fed small chunks of "trash" fish, 

 small blue crabs and undersized oysters in 

 the winter. And the researchers found that 

 maintaining a brood stock of adult 

 females yielded greater clutch sizes. 

 Enterprising folks in coastal counties 

 copied the Pivers Island model and built 

 their own pens. 



But the demand for the diamondback 

 terrapin as food for the epicure peaked in 



32 SPRING 199H 



