Just follow these 3 steps to sign the petition by email!:

1) Address an email to:

thepetition@cterrapin.org

 

2) In the body of the email add the following information (please hit 'Enter' in between each so they appear on separate lines):

Your Full Name:

Permanent Address:

City:

State:

Zip Code:

County:

Are you over 18?:

 

3) Copy The Terrapin Petition (below), also into the body of your email:

With this email I am signing the below petition to close the diamondback terrapin fishery:

Petition to the Governor and the Maryland Department of Natural Resources for a regulation to close the diamondback terrapin fishery

We, the undersigned, request that the Maryland Department of Natural Resources Fisheries Service close the commercial fishery and eliminate the take and trade of diamondback terrapins in the State of Maryland.  We believe that this is a prudent and necessary management action because:

1. life history characteristics including late age at maturity, low reproductive rates, and need for high adult survivorship, indicate that the harvest of terrapins and species with similar life history characteristics is unsustainable;  indeed, these populations have crashed once before. 
2. research on terrapins within the Chesapeake Bay and throughout their range indicate that populations are localized and a concentrated effort to catch terrapins directly or as by-catch in another fishery could rapidly decimate local populations.
3. Statewide populations are unknown and thus no estimates are available to establish reliable quotas or harvest targets.
4. reporting and accounting methods are not consistent or accurate to determine the pressure and take of the current fishery.
5. the 2001 Maryland Diamondback Terrapin Task Force’s first recommendation for terrapin conservation and management was to institute a moratorium on the commercial harvest.

As voters in the State of Maryland, we value our State reptile and mascot as an aesthetic treasure of the Chesapeake Bay, not as a resource to be shipped to Asian food markets both here and overseas for consumption.   This petition may be used to approach the Maryland General Assembly to obtain a closure of the terrapin fishery through legislative process.

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After you've sent your email, please contact your representatives & participate in future projects as we move forward to help preserve our terrapin populations in the Chesapeake Bay.

Thanks!