Turtle Trapping

In case any of you are curious about what I do at work now, here is a brief explanation.
















On Sunday or Monday we set traps. It is easiest if we carry the poles in one boat and the traps in another. This prevents the netting on the traps getting caught in the hooks on the poles.














I don't have a picture of it here but sometimes we also move the posts we tie the traps to. This involves standing in a canoe with a sledge hammer trying to hit the smallest edge of a 2 by 4.














Each day we check our traps and remove any turtles (and fish, logs, and once a duck) that are in the traps. We bring the turtles to shore and record each turtle's species, sex, size and weight. We also mark them so when we catch a turtle we can tell which turtle we have caught. To determine the sex of a turtle, we look at the position of the cloaca. If the cloaca is closer to the turtle's body than the end of the carapace (upper shell), it is probably female. If the cloaca is past the end of the carapace, the turtle is probably male. Male turtles also have longer front claws than female turtles. You can see the cloaca in this picture, it is the line in the turtle's tail that is parallel to the bottom of the turtle's plastron (bottom shell).














Sometimes, after we release the turtles, near the trap we caught them in, we play baseball. It is hard to tell in this picture but Steve (in the Kayak) has just completely missed the pitch thrown by Dave (standing, invisible life jacket) relieving Kelly (in the canoe) from having to figure out how to cover the entire infield and outfield from the canoe, without knocking the pitcher out of the boat. Which means the batter does not have to figure out how to kayak the bases while tied to the defending team.















On Fridays, we bring in our traps, clean everything and sometimes move the posts. Then we get ready to start over again the next week!