Georgia agency will research imperiled diamondback terrapin but declines to require protections

The Georgia Board of Natural Resources has rejected a petition aimed at protecting diamondback terrapins from crab nets, but state wildlife experts will perform a statewide terrapin survey and study methods for protecting the unique turtle.

Terrapins live in brackish tidal creeks along the Atlantic coast as far north as Cape Cod in Massachusetts and along the Gulf Coast from Florida all the way into Texas.

Terrapins are especially vulnerable to wandering into crab pots and drowning in a matter of hours when they can’t surface to breathe. The gregarious little turtles also tend to follow one another into the pots, increasing the death toll, and according to the petition, two derelict crab pots in one Georgia tidal marsh were found to contain 133 terrapin carcasses.