Maryland Terrapins
DR. GEO. W. MASSAMORE, secretary and treasurer of the Maryland Game and Fish Protective Association, sends us the following report of investigation of the Maryland diamond-back terrapin supply:
"I recently visited Crisfield, Somerset county, and spent several days investigating the causes that have made diamond-back terrapin so scarce in Maryland
waters. More terrapins are shipped from Crisfield than from all other points in the State combined, I believe. At Crisfield are located the two largest terrapin ponds in the State, and perhaps the only ones of any size in Maryland. The impounding of terrapin is unquestionably doing more toward exterminating them than all other causes combined. Terrapins will not grow in confinement, or at least very slowly; nor will they propagate. The largest terrapin dealer in this country is A. R. Riggin, Crisfield, whose pound at this time contains 20,000 diamond-back terrapins. The sight was novel. I visited Mr. Riggin's pound just after the terrapins were fed. The scrambling after mashed hard crabs, upon which they were fed, was an interesting sight. The terrapins were so thick that they were crawling over each other; the pound was a moving mass that filled me with wonder and amazement. Think of 20,000 diamond back terrapins on the move at the same time, within an inclosure of about an acre. The time was low tide, affording a good view. The ditches, grass tussocks and mud puddles all seemed like a living, moving, conglomerate mass, struggling for life.
"The other pound in Crisfield is owned by A. L. LaVallette, who is also an extensive dealer in diamond-back terrapins. Mr. LaVallette was the first man to introduce the impounding of terrapins as a business. The enterprise has, no doubt, proven profitable, and others have embarked in the same business. All terrapins caught near Crisfield are sold to these two dealers. Mr. LaVallette, I am told has agents at different places in Maryland, who buy up terrapins for him. Mr. Riggin buys considerable of his stock in North Carolina. They are the exact counterpart of the Maryland terrapin, and it is claimed they are as fine in flavor. The pounds in which the terrapins are confined are inclosed with a tight board fence, 10ft. high, with wire screens across the openings where the water floods and ebbs in and out. The pounds are watched day and night by armed men to protect the terrapins from being stolen.
From all the information obtained during my stay in Crisfield, I am thoroughly convinced that the impounding of terrapins must necessarily result in their final extermination. It is a well established fact that terrapins will not propagate confined in pounds. Females lay from 12 to 20 eggs twice during the season for incubation. A fair estimate for each female would be 30 eggs. Take 20,000 female terrapins now held in confinement in the pounds at Crisfield (this number I am told is a modest estimate), and the result figures up the destruction of 600,000 young terrapins. These figures demonstrate very clearly the necessity for a strict enforcement of the laws against having in possession terrapins out of season.
"The impounding of terrapin is clearly a violation of the law, both of the general State law and the local laws of the several terrapin counties. The laws have been allowed to go by default, as had the game and fish laws, until the Game Warden, through his deputies has been rigidly enforcing them throughout the State during the past year. An enforcement of the laws at this time against parties who have thousands of terrapin impounded would be ruinous from a monetary standpoint. It would only be just to notify parties having terrapin impounded to get rid of their stock during the coming season, and at the same time inform them that after the expiration of the open season the laws will be strictly enforced. This will be my recommendation to the game warden, Mr. J. Olney Norris, and to the executive committee of the Maryland Game and Fish Protective Association.
"A new general law is much needed in this State, making the season for taking and having in possession diamond-back terrapins uniform. The State law permits taking terrapins from Nov. 1 to April 1. The possession of terrapin at any other time is prima facie evidence of a violation of the law; penalty $5 to $10 for each terrapin. In Charles, Calvert and St. Mary's counties the open season is from Sept. 1 to May 1. Somerset, Oct. 1 to April 1. Penalty for having in possession terrapin at any other time from $5 to $25, varying in the different counties.
"The State law is undoubtedly the best law, as five months (Nov. 1 to April 1) is long enough season for taking terrapins. It is hoped that all the counties having local laws that conflict with the State law, will agree to a uniform season. It will be better to repeal all laws and have a new one passed, making the season uniform, regulating the size of terrapins allowed to be caught the same in all counties, and imposing a uniform fine for violations of the law. The Maryland Game and Fish Protective Association will be glad to hear from parties throughout the terrapin districts of the State, giving their views on the subject, as the Association is anxious to assist in having a law passed that will redound to the best interest of all parties interested in the protection of diamond-back terrapins in Maryland waters."