Maryland's Real Terrapins, Orioles Not Faring So Well

Population Drops Prompt Study, Rescues

In the sports world, at least, these are relatively good times for Maryland's Terrapins and Baltimore's Orioles. The University of Maryland's sports teams are perennial contenders, and Baltimore's baseball squad spent the first half of the season near the top of the American League East.

But in nature -- where the oriole and terrapin are not mascots but real, living beings -- the state of the two species in this area is a little shaky. Both creatures are exhibiting symptoms of decline as humans have encroached more and more on their habitats.

Now, far from the limelight afforded their sports counterparts, scientists in Anne Arundel and elsewhere in the state are working to preserve them.

In Anne Arundel, the diamondback terrapin is the more prevalent of the two species. But it's had a difficult past: The turtle, which populates brackish water from Cape Cod to Mexico, once was pushed to the brink of disappearing from the Chesapeake Bay.

That was around 1900, when terrapin meat gained national popularity as a gourmet treat. In 1891, according to the state, watermen hauled in 89,000 pounds of terrapins in a single year. After that craze, the popularity died down, and restrictions on commercial harvesting were enacted.

Now, scientists say they fear the Maryland state reptile may be declining again, but they don't have a firm grasp on the turtle's numbers, either in Maryland or across their full range.

"Nobody really knows," said Mike Haramis, a research biologist for the U.S. Geological Survey.

What scientists do know about terrapins is that their nesting habits put them at odds with humans and development.

Female terrapins like to bury their eggs in soft sand, above the waterline of creeks and streams. In some places, such as the bay's uninhabited Poplar Island or marshy areas of the Eastern Shore, there are still sandy beaches where terrapins can nest. But around much of Anne Arundel, the beaches have been replaced by bulkheads, riprap and other devices aimed at keeping waterside property from eroding.

"Most of Anne Arundel has so much hardened shoreline that it's really marginal habitat" for terrapins, said Willem Roosenburg, a Calvert County native who now studies terrapins as a professor at Ohio University.

Other threats include harvesting by humans: Last year, 2,822 pounds of turtles were reported harvested to the Department of Natural Resources. At about three pounds per turtle, that's a harvest of roughly 940 animals, though officials worry that the total catch is far underreported.

The turtles also are killed by boats -- whose propellers slice the terrapins' shells -- and by foxes and raccoons, which dig out turtle eggs and eat them. Raccoons live well alongside humans and probably have joined the encroachment of suburbia upon stream-side terrapin nests.