SHOCKING! just caught a terrapin in my river

[Tortoise Kid]

OMG
I just caught a terrapin at a river near my house
it was the size of my hand (8 inches)
it was hooked through rod and line
it was in excellent health
unfortunately no pics
should i inform the reptile magazine?

[16 shells]

Dont know, but they are everywhere, around here ,ponds, streams, my son see's them when fishing. People just chuck them in when had enough, Snapping Turtles are a problem.
Paul

[Geomyda]

Originally Posted by Tortoise Kid

OMG
I just caught a terrapin at a river near my house
it was the size of my hand (8 inches)
it was hooked through rod and line
it was in excellent health
unfortunately no pics
should i inform the reptile magazine?

Notify Herpetological Conservation Trust, I believe they are looking at the size and location of feral population of Terrapins in the UK?
The BBC Springwatch, did a small piece about this a couple of weeks ago, and they filmed a lake near Bournemouth.
That said, I am sure that they are very wide spread across the country and I would expect quite a few fishermen have experienced encounters with Terrapins, of various, mostly North American species. Last year I was contacted by the Mational Newspapers to identify, what turned out to be an adult Alligator Snapping Turtle, that was fished out of a lake near Birmingham. This had been returned too the lake by the surprised fisherman, but they managed to photograph it first.

[Alan1]

My brother once caught an ADDER when fishing about 40 years ago