Freshwater Turtle Ban in Florida

Florida freshwater turtles are now protected from commercial harvesting by a ban that was implemented on Monday. According to the Florida Fish and Wildlife Conservation Commission, the results of a recent study provided enough data for the FWC to determine action was necessary.

While individuals will be allowed to take one freshwater turtle, per day, per person from wildlife areas as long as the turtles are obtained for non-commercial purposes, no more than one turtle can be transported at any one time. This presumably ensures a group of people cannot arrive at a site, load up a truck with freshwater turtles, and deplete an area over a very short time.

Turtle farms, however, have been given some latitude to allow them to populate their farms with wild turtles. According to the rules, such farms can collect freshwater turtles only to build up their stock for the purpose of creating a sustainable level of turtle reproductivity on the farms themselves.