Grice Turtle Roundup! Well, we got one anyway...

So a couple of weeks ago, our class went down to the Grice Marine
Lab. The whole point of our trip was to catch some diamondback
terrapins. We all made it there ok, and the plan for the day was to
take about 6 kids at a time on a boat into the harbor and each group
was to check a turtle trap that Dr. Welch has set out a few days
before hand. The first group went out and only came back with one
terrapin, but it was gorgeous! I was in the second group and we went
out on the boat to check the second trap. There were only 3 traps to
check. When we got the second trap in the harbor and pulled it up, to
our dismay there were no turtles in there! We convinced the boater guy
to check the 3rd trap, even though it was for the next group. He
agreed, as long as we pretended we didn't check it when we got back to
the rest of the class. There weren't any turtles in the 3rd trap
either, which was a big bummer since it was the whole point of our
field trip. I guess the little guys were out basking in the sun
somewhere. It was a gorgeous day. When our group got back, we went
inside the Grice lab and looked a baby terrapins. There were very many
of them that came from the same nest. I think they were using them for
certain experiments for tagging. They could quite possibly be the
CUTEST things I've ever seen, and I really want one now! I was going
to stick one in my pocket but then it pooped, so I thought better
against it. The little guy I was holding loved to stick his neck out
as far as he could manage. He would push against my fingers with his
little webbed feet. It really was precious. I just hope that the
turtles aren't getting too caught up in our local turtle traps. It
would really be shame to see their population suffer. (Anne Chalmers)