Don’t forget Rehoboth Bay terrapins
The Center for the Inland Bays has once again installed signs along coastal Route 1, reminding drivers diamondback terrapins are leaving the waters of Rehoboth Bay to lay their eggs in the ocean dunes.
According to the CIB, diamondback terrapins are the only truly estuarine turtle in North America. They do not migrate; they spend their entire lives in bays, creeks, salt marshes, and coves. Every year, breeding female terrapins leave the brackish waters of the bay and cross Route 1 to lay eggs in the ocean dunes. Each female terrapin can reproduce for up to two decades, producing about 25-40 eggs per year.
It is estimated that only 2 percent of terrapin eggs hatch, owing largely to predators like foxes, skunks, and raccoons, which dig into the nests and consume the eggs and baby terrapins.
Chris Flood has been working for the Cape Gazette since early 2014. He currently covers Rehoboth Beach and Henlopen Acres, but has also covered Dewey Beach and the state government. He covers environmental stories, business stories and random stories on subjects he finds interesting, and he also writes a column called Choppin’ Wood that runs every other week. He’s a graduate of the University of Maine and the Landing School of Boat Building & Design.
