New Jersey has ended this year's harvest season for a species of brackish water turtle whose numbers are declining due to overharvesting.
The Environmental Protection Department issued an order Monday banning any further harvesting this year of northern diamondback terrapins. It's the only species of turtle that lives in the brackish waters of the state's coastal marshes and estuaries.
The state is also studying ways to protect the turtles' population.
A bill that would make it illegal to catch or take diamondback terrapins from the wild is pending in the state legislature. Last year, 3,500 terrapins were taken from two locations in southern Jersey for an out-of-state aquaculture facility that raises them for overseas markets.
Authorities also recently prevented 800 more terrapins from being sent there.
