Gulf Restoration Network

Petition to End Commercial Turtle Harvest Filed Blog - Endangered and Threatened Species Wednesday, 18 March 2009 16:34

Turtles Contaminated With Mercury and Other Toxins Sold as Food

The Center for Biological Diversity and two dozen other conservation and health groups today filed emergency petitions with eight Midwestern and southern states, seeking to end unsustainable commercial harvest of freshwater turtles. The coalition submitted administrative petitions to state wildlife and health agencies in Arkansas, Iowa, Kentucky, Louisiana, Missouri, Ohio, South Carolina, and Tennessee, asking for a ban on commercial harvest of freshwater turtles in all public and private waters. The commercial-harvest regulations are needed to prevent further depletions of native turtle populations and to protect public health. Freshwater turtles collected in these states and sold domestically as food or exported to international food markets are often contaminated with mercury, PCBs, and pesticides.

For more information, read the GRN's press release, http://healthygulf.org/press-releases/petition-to-end-unsustainable-commercial-harvest-of-wild-turtle-2.html