Turtles across the state can breathe a sigh of relief this weekend, thanks to the Texas Parks and Wildlife Commission. In , the statewide environmental regulator prohibited commercial hunting of Texas turtles 鈥� a measure that's been slow-moving for years.
A 2007 ban protected certain species from being harvested on public land and public waterways, but it left a loophole. You could still trap an unlimited number of four species 鈥� the common snapping turtle, the red-eared slider, the smooth softshell and spiny softshell 鈥� on private land.
The thing is, 95 percent of Texas is privately owned, and conservationists say that fact 鈥� combined with a growing taste for Texas turtles in Asia 鈥� put the state's population at risk.
鈥淵ou might wonder why is there鈥檚 this concern about the export of turtles and turtle meat to Asia,鈥� said Evelyn Merz with the Sierra Club in Houston. 鈥淲ell, the reason is because in Asia they have their own population of wild turtles.鈥�
For years, some of Texas' most common turtle species to establish a baseline understanding of their numbers.
However, the vote did not ban people from trapping turtles on their own land for noncommercial purposes, and Merz says it doesn't stop a landowner from walking out to a stream, catching a turtle and eating it.
"I won鈥檛 do it myself, because I keep seeing the turtle in front of me 鈥� and they鈥檙e just too cute to eat."
