getting/keeping a sea turtle
- Thread starter rwb500
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drunkfish3
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the short answer is no, but if you have enough money and space you could probably get a permit to house rescued turtles.
Importing sea turtles or any sea turtle product is absolutely and strictly forbidden by federal law. If they catch you with a real tortoise shell comb (made from a Hawksbill sea turtle shell) you will get a huge fine. There are no exceptions for private individuals, no special permits whatsoever. Any exceptions would result in various scams and fradulent activity so the ban is absolute.
If you can get a rescue designation and you have the required massive facility it's possible to have temporary custody of a sea turtle while it is recuperating. These are adult and semi-adult animals. Every fall volunteers scour certain beaches in New England where cold stunned turtles, mostly Ridleys, wash up after being carried north on the Gulf Stream. These are cared for at a designated facility.
Two years ago I seined up a yearling Green Turtle in New Jersey's Barnegat Bay and immediately released it. A long, long time ago, when it was legal, I raised a hatchling Hawksbill. I had it for 4 years before it got too large. I donated it to the NY Aquarium.
When I saw it flying through the huge tank they put it in I realized how selfish i was to have restricted it to a relatively tiny 150 gallon tank. These creatures belong in the sea. They are vanishing as their nesting beaches are turned into condominiums or flooded by rising sea levels.
If you can get a rescue designation and you have the required massive facility it's possible to have temporary custody of a sea turtle while it is recuperating. These are adult and semi-adult animals. Every fall volunteers scour certain beaches in New England where cold stunned turtles, mostly Ridleys, wash up after being carried north on the Gulf Stream. These are cared for at a designated facility.
Two years ago I seined up a yearling Green Turtle in New Jersey's Barnegat Bay and immediately released it. A long, long time ago, when it was legal, I raised a hatchling Hawksbill. I had it for 4 years before it got too large. I donated it to the NY Aquarium.
When I saw it flying through the huge tank they put it in I realized how selfish i was to have restricted it to a relatively tiny 150 gallon tank. These creatures belong in the sea. They are vanishing as their nesting beaches are turned into condominiums or flooded by rising sea levels.
Absolutely. Do not even consider trying to keep this animal.
tkeracer619
New member
Or you can volunteer to watch nests and keep them safe. I have spent many nights walking beaches looking for hatching nests.
Helping 100% of them make it into the ocean is a priceless feeling.
I cannot stand people who own beach front property and will not observe lights out during hatching season. It is a big problem. I have locked out fuse boxes before. Luckily they are usually clearly labeled and a lock cutter can be hard to come by at 10pm :lol:
Helping 100% of them make it into the ocean is a priceless feeling.
I cannot stand people who own beach front property and will not observe lights out during hatching season. It is a big problem. I have locked out fuse boxes before. Luckily they are usually clearly labeled and a lock cutter can be hard to come by at 10pm :lol:
Reefun
New member
I would really like to know more about this "operation" that breeds and kills sea turtles
Gill_bucket
New member
I have wondered the same thing. I have seen pictures of breeding facilities who like an alligator farm raise sea turtles for food purposes. It seems that aquarists may actually be able to benefit sea turtles by raising them to a curtain size before release, thus lessening the number of potential predators. Obviously some kind of regulatory system would need to be put in place to inspect the turtles before release to prevent the spread of disease from captive to wild populations. However this kind of regulation might possibly be funded by the sale of the turtles, if the sales we restricted to only the regulatory organization; who would then be able to inflate the price to cover their operating cost.
The Cayman Islands Turtle Farm Ltd. breeds Green Sea Turtles, a percentage of which they release. The rest are slaughtered to make gourmet turtle soup, a wildly expensive product. In fairness to the Cayman Islanders, though they permit this operation it is owned by wealthy British and American investors. It's been there for a long time. Many years ago I caught a very small Green Turtle by hand while diving off Little Bloody Bay in Negril, Jamaica. It had an ID tag from the Cayman Turtle Farm embedded in its flipper. I kept it overnight in the bathtub at my little cottage, and, despite the pleas of my Jamaican fisherman friends, released it the next day. For some reason I removed the lead alloy tag, which I still have. I believe there may be similar business operations elsewhere.
Opcn
Member
Given the draw of turtles my guess is that the survival rate would be similar to that of clownfish in the months after finding nemo came out. Unless you had rigorous screening in place to vet the aquarists, and if that were the case then it would be cheaper and easier for the people doing the screening to just screen no one and raise the animals themselves.
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