Diamondback Terrapin Research

2019 t Present

Partners: USGS, Florida Sea Grant / UF-IFAS Extension, Escambia County, United States Geological Survey (USGS), Destin-Fort Walton Beach Natural Resources Team

Destin-Fort Walton Beach Natural Resources participates in the Panhandle Terrapin Project, a Florida Sea Grant-led, volunteer-based effort operating across Apalachicola, Baldwin, Bay, Escambia, Okaloosa, Santa Rosa, and Walton counties to assess the status of the diamondback terrapin, a salt-marsh turtle species listed as a species of special concern. The project trains citizen scientists to survey known and potential nesting beaches each spring, tallying nests, tracks, and depredated nests to estimate relative terrapin abundance, and to tag terrapins using notch marking, PIT tags, and in limited cases satellite tags.

A collaboration with USGS was formalized in 2019 to strengthen the scientific rigor of the citizen-science survey design and data collection. Diamondback terrapins face pressure from road mortality, boat strikes, predation, the pet trade, and bycatch in crab traps, a risk that led to a 2023 Florida requirement that recreational blue crab traps include bycatch reduction devices. Since the Panhandle Terrapin Project’s founding in 2005, it has trained more than 270 volunteers, with Okaloosa County among the participating counties hosting annual training sessions and surveys.