May 16, 2024 - Karen Buckley

This photo of an intricately patterned carapace (the top part of the shell, the bottom is called the plastron) was taken on July 18, 2023. Our cousin in Massachusetts helps with the spring herring run count and uses a clicker, inspiring us to get a clicker to count the number of terrapin heads we saw on each terrapin tagging outing. On that day we counted a record (for us) number of diamondback terrapin heads in just a little over 2 hours: 1,017 diamondback terrapin heads! People ask us if we are re-counting heads and the answer may be yes—but we are also missing many heads that pop up, too. And even if one felt the need to cut that number in half: that’s still a lot of diamondback terrapin heads to see in that period of time!

This little girl was first captured by the Wetlands Institute in 2004 and then found crossing the road and nesting there in 2023. That means she was at least 19 years old last year! She is our oldest recorded tagged terrapin so far. We captured her twice in 2022 and once in 2023. Note that the Wetlands Institute is located about 2.5 miles from the Shell Bay crabbing dock where we caught her.

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This tagged terrapin had a barnacle on the bottom of her shell, but one minute later in the photo on the right it was gone, because we removed it. We learned about marine turtle “spa treatments” working with the U.S. Fish and Wildlife team on Buck Island in St. Croix, U.S. Virgin Islands, where they routinely removed barnacles from the sea turtles they encountered. Also, one of last year’s Wetlands Institute interns included her own barnacle removal from terrapins in her final report.

This turtle was first trapped in 2017 in Josh Creek, not far from the Shell Bay crabbing dock. She’s been captured a total of 8 times, 4 by us, and is at least 7 years old. These sunset photos were taken on August 27, 2023.

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It’s hard to believe that this is the same turtle, except that they have the same notch on the upper left side of the shell and the same markings—like a fingerprint, unique to each terrapin! The terrapins can look very different due to whether they are wet or dry, or have lost or are about to lose the fingernail-like coverings on the sections of their shell (called scutes) as they grow.

She was first caught by hand nesting at the Wetlands Institute in 2020, recaptured there several times, then caught in 2022 by us. Then she nested at the Wetlands Institute in 2023 and was crossing the road in 2023. So she’s been caught several times—twice by us—and she was at least 3 years old last year.

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This terrapin was first trapped in Jenkins Sound (the Shell Bay crabbing dock is on Jenkins Sound) by Wetlands Institute staff in 2013. We were the first to recapture her and have done so 4 times. This means she was at least 10 years old last year when this photo was taken.

Along with checking the terrapins for tags, we record data such as dates, start and finish times at the crabbing dock, temperature, tide, wind, sightings, and number of bycatch. We also take notes on whether it was sunny or cloudy, and where we saw the terrapins—sometimes it’s only from one side of the dock. We keep track of the numbers of crabs we catch, too, since it proves that terrapins are not eating the crabs but instead going for the bait in the traps. We’ve caught fish and eels in our traps and have even caught as many as 4 or 5 terrapins in a single trap!

We’ve also seen many interesting sights at the crabbing dock, including sting rays, dolphins, and even sea turtles!

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If only this little girl could talk, she could tell us what happened to her shell, with its indents and gouges! She appears to have survived them nicely, though, and she has been captured 4 times at Shell Bay, the first time in 2013 by the Wetlands Institute. This means she was at least 10 years old when this photo was taken last year.

Speaking of injuries to the terrapins, we are glad when we can remove a fishing hook caught in a poor terrapin’s mouth. We’re glad our crab traps don’t hurt the terrapins. Sometimes we even lower the terrapins back into the water via our trap if the tide is really low: we call it our turtle elevator service!

It is amazing to us how many people do not know what kind of turtle the diamondback terrapin is—they often call them snapping turtles. Then we show them a picture of our own Turtlesinger snapping turtle, Spike!

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The Wetlands Institute captured this little girl also in nearby Josh Creek as a juvenile in 2008.

We were the first to recapture her and have caught her 3 times: in August of 2022, July and September of 2023.

This means she was at least 15 years old when this photo was taken last year.

Our record number of terrapins captured as bycatch in a 2-hour time frame is 26 terrapins in mid-July of last year. So far, we are keeping track of a total of 12 tagged terrapins.

When we crab and catch terrapins, we always offer our crabs to others at the crabbing dock. People often really appreciate this and in return, we ask them to let us know if they also accidentally catch terrapins so we can check them for tags. The public at the crabbing dock are very interested in helping our research, which often results in excited cries of "TURTLE!" down the dock.

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This little girl was first tagged in 2007 by the Wetlands Institute, again in Josh Creek. We were the first to capture her since then, meaning she was at least 16 years old when this photo was taken last year.

We consider all of these tagged terrapins so very special and look forward to continuing this research on behalf of the Wetlands Institute and in concert with our mutual goals, including educating the public about turtles!

By the way, the shirt Charlie is wearing is from our former Cape May County Benefit Motorcycle Poker Run for the Turtles, which we ran for 12 years.

Our 2 cats Willie and Wally are both chipped, so our celebration of Chip Your Pet Month is in honor of them, too.

Thanks as always for reading!