Safe Turtles, Happy Turtles: It’s a Shell-ebration!

As of 2024, wild turtle trapping will no longer be accepted in the waterways of Minnesota, the United States, hence protecting the very population of painted turtles whose survival is threatened by the devastating activity.

“It’s time to shellebrate,” says Christopher Smith, conservation committee chair for the Minnesota Herpetological Society. “Minnesota’s ban on the commercial harvest of wild-caught turtles has been a long time coming and has been a group effort spanning over two decades.”

Despite a moratorium placed on issuing licenses for commercial turtle trappers some 20 years ago, tens of thousands of turtles were collected and sold. In 2021 alone, 19 licensees removed 10,000 painted turtles from Minnesota’s wild. The turtle population is in jeopardy since the species takes years to mature and reproduce. Turtle trapping is under important restrictions or bans in the states of Alabama, Florida, Georgia, Iowa, Missouri, New York, Nevada, South Carolina, and Texas.