The risk is, one less pair of turtles in the wild that could complete their life cycle adding to their demise.
I'm a little confused.
- Thread starter Karl K
- Start date
I'm referring to turtles that are already here,that's what I have been saying in my posts.
Export and trade in FRTs is now banned from the 3 countries the species originates (Indonesia, Australia, and Papua N.G.). Importing to the US is now federally illegal though the Threatened Species Act and the Lacey Act. Legal turtles are those where proof is available that the turtles were procured prior to the ban. Just before the import ban, FRTs that were brought in through customs with Indonesian export permits were allowed and illegal imports were considered to be 'legal' once they reached the retail buyers.
So if someone has a FRT in the states and it's legal before the ban... can you buy or trade with them or would that then be considered illegal?
Sent from my SAMSUNG-SM-G870A using MonsterAquariaNetwork App
Glad to see you chiming in Oddball,you probably have more experience with these turtles than any other active member.
I wouldn't compare FRT culturing to cardinals (or anything else). FRTs don't become sexually mature for 5 years. Young female fecundity (egg production) is low making breeding for the trade not financially viable. BTW, the young turts that were available for world market trading came from harvested wild nests where the eggs were destined for the asian food markets. Indonesia alone, allows the harvest of over 2,000,000 eggs anually. The young that hatched between the collection points and food markets are the specimens that were sold world-wide for the pet trade. Back to breeding... unless you have large surface acre ponds, the territorial males will injure and kill other males and immature males will also injure and kill females in their territory. So, mass breeding the species, in aquaculture, will never bee seen in the US due to the costs outweighing any potential profit to be made from the sale of hatchlings.
So long as the seller transfers the original sale paperwork/dated receipt from before the ban the FRT can be sold. Without the proof you run the risk of being scrutinized by the feds.
The pet trade is far from the cause of the species being added to CITES. Of the 3 countries the species occurs, the legal egg collection for asian food markets was in the millions each year. The specimens that were offered to the pet trade were collected eggs that hatched (export laws labeled these as 'captive-hatched') prior to arriving to food markets. I bought my 4 before their inclusion in CITES II for $64/each (less than other turtle species imports) less than 15 years back and that's not long ago considering the longevity of the species. That's the main reason you still see FRTs occassionally offered for sale (and those offers are few and far between) compared to a couple of years ago when Indonesia was still allowing exports of FRTs.
