The SFEC, under the leadership of Dave and Carol Ferguson and Dick Omrod, has been assisting the Wetlands Institute in their study of diamondback terrapins.
We started in August, 2010 by taking their staff to several places behind Strathmere, primarily near Flat Creek and Burroughs Hole to trap.
The traps are placed in the morning and then checked at night. The terrapins are measured, weighted, blood samples taken and a computer chip is installed for future tracking and analysis. Water is measured and the
terrapins are then returned to the place they were trapped.
Our trapping efforts have been very productive (in one session we trapped 104) and the Wetlands folks plan
on continuing the trapping in our area for the rest of 2011 and probably into the future. We have conducted trappings twice this year and plan on several more. Tides are critical in the process, and the trapping is timed to benefit from the traps being in place during the outgoing tide, through low tide and collected during high tide.