Bill, your bringing up the red-ear slider issue reminds me of a turtle related story that happened about 10 years ago in this region of Texas. An entrepreneur devised a pyramid scheme sort of like Amway that was aimed at providing turtles to the Asian market. Some of the PB members might remember this. He supplied turtle traps to individuals who went out and trapped the turtles and then scheduled regular collection and weigh-in events at a defunct roadside attraction west of Weatherford. I had trapped more than a hundred sliders out of my pond and decided I'd take a couple of buckets full to the collection event. I guess I'm too softhearted toward turtles but this event kind of turned my stomach. There were a few snapping turtles and soft-shelled turtles which were highly prized and then there were tons of red-ear sliders which were just dumped into a flatbed trailer with high side walls - to be shipped to Asia. I quietly slunk off and released my sliders into the Brazos. I think the enterprise fizzled after a couple of months. Anyone remember this? Is there still a market for sliders for meat?
My pond now has a couple of big sliders and around 30 babies. I'll get around to building a turtle trap and reduce that number.
Since I'm just raising forage fish, I won't be stocking predator fish species so I'll just have to take care of the turtle and crawfish populations with trapping and the BB gun.
Thanks for your help.
