However, when you think about how long it takes for turtles to reach sexual maturity, the odds stacked against a turtle egg, how many people eat them here, and how easy they are to catch..... it's just a matter of "getting ahead" of the turtle numbers.
I'm not advocating shutting down commercial turtle trapping, I'm just saying that catching them faster than they reproduce happens, and it has happened in a lot of places.
You been reading too much junk. They shut us down here. You want to help turtles catch coons, shoot crows. You don,t see them promoting that do you.
A snapper can have fertile eggs for years without being bred. Do they tell you that? NO.
One of the biggest killers of small snappers are the large males. Promote your programs with targets of removing the large males.
Let me say this in a way that isn't taken as rude....
First of all, don't tell me what I have or haven't read. I know that they don't have to breed every year, they can keep the semen.
As I said, I am not advocating for ending commercial season. Just because they can be trapped out of one pond, doesn't mean that there aren't healthy populations in just about every waterhole a person can imagine.
Very few snappers reach adulthood, there are so many things that eat them. However, once they DO reach maturity, they can almost live forever. That works out for them, because they live for so long that the few that do make it, make up for the ones that didn't.
I do shoot every crow at my house that I can, not because of turtles, but because they are crows.
Don't try to make me look like I am against commercial trapping. A few people make a living doing it, and the rest just catch a few, so I think that their population is safe. They may get fished out of a certain area, but the population remains stable elsewhere. I understand that, but don't attack me, telling me what I read is junk, and don't tell me that they can't be trapped out if they are over harvested in a
given area. Even the buffalo numbers got short, and I know the buffalo hunters probably argued otherwise.
As I said, I'm not trying to be rude, but I'm not going to have someone tell me that I'm spewing false information--you don't even know me.