As I begin close to the end of my career, I thought I would post summary articles on the projects I have been involved with as a Sea Grant Agent.  We will begin with the diamondback terrapin project.

For those who are not aware of this, Diamondback terrapins are relatively small turtles who are members of the same family as many of the freshwater turtles we know.  They differ in that their skin color is much lighter (often white, gray, or even light blue), and their preference for brackish water.  Terrapins are found in estuaries ranging from Massachusetts to Texas, and within that range there are seven subspecies, five of those found in Florida.

The Florida population appears to be smaller than those of the Mid-Atlantic states and, in 2005 when I began working on this project, they were not sure whether they existed in the Florida panhandle.

Phase 1 of the Panhandle Terrapin Project was to answer that question – do terrapins exist here? The answer is yes.

Phase 2 was to assess their status – were they widespread across the bay area? To answer this question, we trained citizen scientists to survey known nesting beaches.  These volunteers monitored nesting activity and provided some environmental data to help us better understand how their populations were doing.

Phase 3 began when we developed a partnership with the U.S. Geological Survey and the Escambia County Division of Natural Resources.  This phase included tagging terrapins to better understand how they used the bay system they lived in.

We just recently added a Phase 4 which will look at the genetics of the local population – trying to determine which subspecies are using our bays.  This has become a graduate research project with the University of West Florida.

In summary, we know terrapins do exist in the Florida panhandle.  Populations in the western panhandle seem to be relatively small and not widespread.  Nesting seems to be cyclic (good years and bad ones) and some populations have abandoned their nesting beaches to relocate elsewhere.  Tagging data indicates that some of the females move much further than terrapins typically do – one terrapin traveled almost 70 miles.  Though they do not live in the Gulf we have found individuals on the Gulf side of our barrier islands.

All of this information is being used by the state to determine what conservation measures might be needed.  The thought now is that our terrapin populations are small and some form of protection is needed.  Because of their habit of swimming into crab traps, the Florida Fish and Wildlife Conservation Commission (FWC) now requires bycatch reduction devices on recreational crab traps.  Because they are popular in the pet trade, and illegal poaching has occurred, FWC now requires a permit to possess a terrapin.

Our project will continue after I retire and more conservation measures may be implemented by FWC.  Although not in high numbers, we do have terrapins in the western Florida panhandle.

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