mystery begins. Young terrapins — 

 between hatching and reaching sexual 

 maturity at three to four years — 

 virtually disappear into the vast 

 expanses of salt marsh. No one 

 knows where they go. One Delaware 

 researcher found small numbers of the 

 youngsters hidden beneath the wrack 

 of dead reeds pushed up by the tide at 

 the marsh edge. 



Could it be the small terrapins 

 hide among this marsh camouflage, 

 protected from predation, and feed on 

 a smorgasbord of estuarine inverte- 

 brates? Perhaps. But until biologists 

 focus more research on these estuarine 

 terrapins, no definitive answer is 

 forthcoming. 



Last August, herpetologists and 

 resource managers from the Atlantic 

 and Gulf states gathered at the 

 Savannah River Ecology Laboratory 

 in South Carolina to discuss the 

 ecology, status and conservation of the 

 diamondback terrapin. Their concern 

 was that this estuarine reptile was 

 again on the decline in many states. 



Researchers cited habitat loss, 

 water quality degradation, road kills 

 and incidental entrapment in crab pots 

 as contributing factors to the terrapin's 

 possible reduction in numbers. But 

 without comprehensive population 

 data, the researchers and resource 

 managers could make no definitive 

 statements about its status or any 

 recommendations about its inclusion 

 as a species of concern under the U.S. 

 Endangered Species Act. 



Why study the diamondback 

 terrapin? Like the canary in the coal 

 mine, diamondback terrapin popula- 

 tions are indicators for the health of 

 the environment, particularly salt 

 marshes. The turtle is part of a 

 complex estuarine food web that is 

 carefully balanced from bottom to top 

 among a variety of plants and animals. 



And who among us doesn't 

 delight at the sound of the diamond- 

 back feeding on periwinkle snails or 

 the sight of the terrapin sunning on a 

 marsh bank? As with all creatures, 

 there is value in just knowing it's 

 there. □ 



Illustration by Anne Marshall Runyon 



COASTWATCH 21 



