Boom Times for the Terrapins of Poplar Island

Terrapin populations seem to be booming out on a new, largely rebuilt island on the eastern side of Chesapeake Bay. When biologist Willem Roosenburg began monitoring terrapin nests on Poplar Island, he found hatchling survival rates as high as 70 to 80 percent. The Army Corps of Engineers has been diking and filling this site to create a large manmade island out of several small, separate islets that were dwindling away, the victims of erosion and subsidence. The new island is now the disposal site for dredge material dug out of the shipping channels of Chesapeake Bay, but it also holds several wetland cells where female terrapins can dig their nests, lay eggs and have high hopes their offspring will survive. The reasons: few predators, little boat traffic, no highway traffic, no commercial harvesting.

Produced by Michael W. Fincham, Maryland Sea Grant.

Category:

Education

Tags:

• Chesapeake Bay
• diamondback terrapins
• nesting
• science
• Willem Roosenburg
• Poplar Island
• dredge fill
• manmade island
• species protection
• marsh restoration