TRENTON – Senator Jeff Van Drew (Cape May, Cumberland, Atlantic) sent a letter to the mayors of Sea Isle City, Ocean City and Upper Township requesting that they take action to protect Diamondback Terrapins from being killed by motor vehicles on local roadways. Senator Van Drew sponsored a law signed last year that designated diamondback terrapins – a species of turtles which are native to New Jersey – as a nongame indigenous species and made it illegal to catch them in New Jersey.
Senator Van Drew noted that for anyone driving along the major routes in the towns, “it would be hard not to notice the corpses of crushed turtles littering the roadway.” He said the deaths are largely caused by female diamondback terrapins crossing roadways looking for places to lay their eggs during mating season that generally takes place May through July.
“This leads to high number of female terrapins and their unhatched babies being needlessly killed,” wrote Senator Van Drew. “This could all be avoidable if as a community we made an effort to increase awareness through street signs during the high traffic times of mating season and also with the installation of preventative measures such as corrugated tubing, fencing or a barrier of some sort to stop the turtles from entering the roadway.
“I am asking that we make a worthwhile effort to protect these turtles so that they can continue to contribute to our ecosystem and future tourists and visitors will get to enjoy seeing them on their visits…Families of the Jersey Shore and families coming to visit should not have to see the carnage of dead turtle bodies squashed into the roadway as they enter their shore towns,” Van Drew wrote.
The senator sent the letter after he and his Assembly colleagues, Assemblymen Bob Andrzejczak and Bruce Land, heard from individuals and organizations concerned about the lack of protection for diamondback terrapins and the turtle population at large. He also noted that a petition calling for protective fences for the turtles, started by Kelly Hanna – a local resident and Marine and Environment Biology and Policy Major at Monmouth University – has garnered over 1,500 total signatures, and of those about 65% or 1,000 signatures are from district residents.
Cape May – Governor Murphy says he doesn't know anything about the drones and doesn't know what they are doing but he does know that they are not dangerous. Does anyone feel better now?
