| Return to Diamondback Terrapin Homepage |
|---|
| Current Projects |
| Publications |
| Support |
We
primarily use two methods for capturing diamondback terrapins in the tidal
creeks of Kiawah Island, South Carolina. These methods are seining and
trammel nets. We have also captured terrapins by hand, dipnets, cast-netting,
recreational crab traps, and road surveys. Typically, we capture a higher
proportion of males during seining and a higher proportion of females
in trammel nets. If we find individuals in crab traps, they tend to be
males and other young age cohorts.
Seining
 |
 |
|
|---|---|---|
| Tidal Creeks at low tide | Setting up the seine | |
 |
 |
|
| Seining Oyster Creek | Pulling in a seine haul | |
Trammel Nets
 |
 |
|---|---|
| Pulling in a trammel net | Finding
a terrapin |
 |
 |
Finding
a stingray in a trammel net |
Finding
bonnet-head sharks in a trammel net |
Processing
When
we capture terrapins at Kiawah Island, we return all individuals to land
before we process and release them. We measure carapace length, plastron
length, shell width, shell depth, mass, gravidity, age, and injuries.
These measures have allowed us to analyze several questions (See
current projects and publications).
 |
 |
Filing
a mark into the turtle shell as part of its individual code |
Measuring
shell depth of a male terrapin |
 |
 |
Weighing
a male terrapin |
Aging
a terrapin |
