Project Terrapin

For the past 19 years, Project Terrapin has been conducting research with diamondback terrapins throughout the Barnegat Bay system. In New Jersey, especially Barnegat Bay, little is known about the population of this species and the regulatory aspects of this species are based on populations. We began marking nesting female terrapins at N. Sedge Island in 2002, working with the NJ Division of Fish and Wildlife. Since that time, we've marked 1400 terrapins in the Sedge Island Wildlife Conservation Zone, and worked on projects with EarthWatch and Drexel Universities, where approximately 2500 terrapins have been marked in the Edwin B. Forsythe Wildlife Refuge, Barnegat, New Jersey. We are expanding our project to include genetic work and we need to identify areas where terrapins are found. At Cedar Run Dock Road we've marked over 1100 terrapins to date and the encounters we get will give us a better indication of the population.