By MADDY VITALE
Owen Hoffman likes diamondback terrapins. So much so that the 8-year-old second grader from Ocean City makes it his duty to rescue them when they get stuck in places that could be dangerous to them.
“I rescued 11 baby turtles yesterday,” the Merion Park child exclaimed Tuesday. “I found them right by my house.”
While the height of turtle nesting season has not yet begun — the season typically runs from May to August — Owen is finding babies that nested last year and just hatched.
Every morning about this time of year, Owen goes out in search of diamondback terrapins that need rescuing.
“It makes me feel great to save them,” he said. “Their little faces pop up in my basket. You want to save them, so they don’t get stuck and die.”
After Owen rescues the baby turtles, he and his parents, Kathy and Steve Hoffman, release them to a safe place in high grass and bay mud.
They released the 11 terrapins Tuesday because it was too cold Monday, Kathy noted.
The Hoffmans are proud of their son for helping to save the turtles. Steve even bought his son a net to help scoop them up into safety.
“It makes me feel great knowing Owen loves creatures big and small. He will go out in the morning and see if there are turtles stuck in places around our neighborhood,” Kathy noted of the Merion Park section of town. “It is just something he started doing a couple of years ago. He loves saving them.”
Not all terrapins are lucky enough to have concerned turtle lovers, like Owen, willing to locate and rescue them.
Each year in Ocean City and surrounding shore communities, many terrapins are crushed on the roadways or get trapped somewhere and are unable to get out.
While diamondback terrapins can live up to 30 to 40 years, traffic, roadwork and the fishing industry pose dangers to their survival.
Only one egg in a thousand grows up to be an adult turtle, experts say.
The Hoffmans called the Wetlands Institute in Stone Harbor on Monday to alert them that Owen found and rescued 11 terrapins.
“They said it was great,” Kathy said.
In May, homeowners and motorists will begin seeing female diamondback terrapins leave the marshlands in search of sandy soil to lay their eggs.
Devin Griffiths, marketing specialist for the Wetlands Institute, said of the terrapin season, “We are just seeing the first turtles coming out now that wintered in their nests. They are the hatchlings from last year. We had some on our property at the Wetlands Institute. The quarter-size turtles are coming out of the dirt. It’s pretty amazing.”
While diamondback terrapins are not on the endangered list, they are “a species of special concern,” Griffiths explained.
“A species of special concern means the state of New Jersey is making sure that they don’t decline,” he noted. “It is a step above threatened. You try to keep an eye on them before they become threatened or endangered.”
Griffiths said of Owen’s mission to save terrapins: “He is doing great work. I would like to say to Owen if he was there (at the Wetlands Institute) and I had a chance to speak to him, thanks for caring about them. Thanks for rescuing them and thanks for making the world a little bit safer of a place for these little guys and girls.”
