The Race to Save the Diamondback Terrapin

Jasper ’25, will spend his summer as an active environmental steward contributing to the research, preservation and public outreach of the Diamondback Terrapin.

The Diamondback Terrapin (Malaclemys terrapin) spends nearly all of its life in a narrow strip of salt marsh that connects the ocean to the mainland. They are a keystone species as the only exclusively estuarine turtle in North America, playing a key role in maintaining balanced and healthy marsh ecosystems on Cape Cod. Since 1980, Mass Audubon’s Wellfleet Bay Wildlife Sanctuary has been monitoring them due to their listed status as “Threatened” under the Massachusetts Endangered Species Act. Heavy summer traffic has caused an increase in the number of egg-carrying females struck by cars each year, while sea-level rise and an overpopulation of predators has caused nest depredation. This problem presents an opportunity to do volunteer conservation work during this summer’s terrapin’s nesting season and public outreach during the busy tourist season on Cape Cod. This project is meaningful to me as I have lived on the Outer Cape for the past five summers and it has drastically changed my perception of its unique marine life and its crucial role in our ecological health. My goal is to be an active environmental steward and contribute to the research, preservation and public outreach for this threatened turtle species on Cape Cod.

Diamondback Terrapin carcass struck by a car

Video of terrapin nesting:

https://drive.google.com/file/d/1uUNxzTsIDhFnDGfSV6HcjyevUKCWOPdV/view?usp=drive_link

Video of racoon digging up eggs:

https://drive.google.com/file/d/16TYVOZ2pEDucloYXDuaVZpou6-x53I6b/view?usp=drive_link

There are two primary goals for my grant project:

1. 1. 1. To aid in the research and conservation of Diamondback Terrapins on Cape Cod for the 2024 Nesting Season. To achieve this, I completed terrapin training on June 4 with Mass Audubon so I can volunteer at the Wellfleet Bay Wildlife Sanctuary three times a week for their Diamondback conservation nesting season this summer. My first shift was on June 9 where I worked with a research team to monitor for the presence of adult females, completed nests, and depredated nests. As of now, we have protected 168 nests and we will continue to collect data on tagged turtles and nesting activity.

Video of coyote defeated due to our efforts of protecting terrapin nest:

https://drive.google.com/file/d/1tciqkTI-avgboS8IdbVrr3eNiq8nNf1v/view?usp=drive_link

2. To increase awareness of the threatened species to the summer 2024 tourists in Wellfleet Bay. I co-lead a group program for adults and children six years and older called  “The Turtle Prowl”. It is scheduled through Mass Audubon and we take public groups into the Wellfleet Wildlife Sanctuary and educate them on the importance of the terrapin as a keystone species.

I am also creating a campaign for public outreach called “The Race to Save the Diamondback Terrapin” with the following media and materials:

1. 1. • Gmail account exclusively for this project: diamondbackterrapinturtles@gmail.com
      • A tee shirt for me to wear at events and programs, potentially to sell for fundraising in the future:

1. 1. • stickers to hand out as a take-away, reminder and awareness tool:

1. 1. • I have begun an online information story map explaining the challenges of the Diamondback Terrapin that will be linked to a QR code and scanned at events for public outreach:

1. 1. • signage for my “JOIN THE RACE” information table for events in Wellfleet Bay: