Turtle farms threatening Asian species

[Guest guest]

http://www.fishfarmer-magazine.com/news/fullstory.php/aid/993/Turtle_farms_threa\

ten_rare_species,_experts_say.html

Turtle farms threaten rare species, experts say

 

*30 March, 2007 - *

 

**Hainan Normal University **

CHINA'S hunger for turtle meat, which has sparked a conservation crisis

across Asia since the 1980s, is increasingly being met by farm-raised

animals.

But the rapid expansion of commercial turtle farming is continuing to place

China's native species at risk of extinction, some experts say.

According to National Geographic, at the same time, continuing demand in

China for wild turtles is now affecting species from other parts of the

world, including the United States.

In a letter published in the February issue of the journal Conservation

Biology, four turtle experts from China and the U.S. wrote that turtle farms

are the number one purchasers of Chinese turtles captured in the wild.

" The captive breeding of turtles for profit is widespread in China, " said

co-author James Parham, of the California Academy of Sciences in San

Francisco. " The sheer scale of it dwarfs all previous predictions.

" Turtle farmers buy wild-caught turtles to improve their breeding stock, "

Parham explained. " There is a belief that wild turtles breed better in

captivity than captive-born turtles. "

Parham worked with Shi Haitao, of China's Hainan Normal University, to

survey the extent of Chinese turtle farming and assess its impacts.

The biologists report that more than a thousand turtle farms valued at more

than a billion U.S. dollars currently exist in the country.

Peter Paul van Dijk is a turtle conservation expert with the Washington,

D.C.-based non-profit Conservation International, who was not involved with

the new survey.

He said some farms are primarily illegal laundering operations that sell

wild-caught turtles as " farm raised. "

Others, he said, " persist in attempts to be the first to mass-breed a

particular [threatened] species. These are particularly damaging to wild

populations. "

Conservationists had hoped that commercial turtle breeding could help solve

the crisis of over-harvesting, which has brought many Asian turtle species

to the brink of extinction in the wild.

In part, van Dijk said, the practice has been beneficial. He recently

surveyed four major Chinese turtle markets and found that the large majority

of turtles came from farms.

" Wild-collected turtles—nearly all tropical Asian species—have reduced from

70% market share in 2000 to about 30% market share now in the visible trade

in South China, " he said.

Other factors may also have contributed to the change, such as improved

import restrictions as well as the sobering fact that many Southeast Asian

turtle populations are greatly depleted.

But at the same time, commercial breeding has placed significant new

pressures on Chinese species, nearly all of which are threatened.

" Farming is a major additional impact on Chinese wild turtle populations but

probably the saviour for Southeast and South Asian turtles, " van Dijk said.

In China, he said, turtle farming " has the potential to place a premium

value on the very last wild animals, which means it will be profitable and

economically worthwhile for local collectors to go out and look for them. "

 

 

*www.fishfarmer-magazine.com is published by Special Publications. Special

Publications also publishes FISHupdate.com, FISHupdate magazine, Fish

Farmer, the Fish Industry Yearbook, the Scottish Seafood Processors

Federation Diary, the Fish Farmer Handbook and a range of wallplanners.*