Turtle farming

Turtle farming is raising turtles and tortoises to sell for different uses. People sell them for food, for use in old medicine ways, or as pets. Some farms sell baby turtles to other farms to grow bigger.

Most farms grow freshwater turtles, like Chinese softshell turtles, which are sold for food. Others grow sliders and cooter turtles to be pets. Because turtles live in water, this is a kind of aquaculture. Some farms also raise land tortoises, like Cuora mouhotii, for pets.

Very few farms try to raise sea turtles. Today, only one farm for sea turtles is still open. It is in the Cayman Islands. Other farms, in places like Australia's Torres Strait Islands and Réunion, closed. The farm on Réunion is now a public aquarium named Kélonia.

Geography

Japan

Japan was one of the first places to farm softshelled turtles. The first farm started in 1866 by Kurajiro Hatori in Fukagawa near Tokyo. It began with turtles caught from the wild and later started breeding them. By the early 1900s, the farm had big ponds and made many turtles and eggs each year. The turtles ate crushed bivalve mollusks, fish scraps, and boiled wheat. They lived with carp and eels, which helped keep the water clean.

China

China now has most of the world's turtle farms. Old Chinese books talk about keeping turtles in fish ponds. Today, over a thousand farms work there, mostly in southern areas like Guangdong and Guangxi. These farms raise millions of turtles each year, with the Chinese softshell turtle being the most common. The industry has grown a lot since the 1980s, and many farms make both food and pets.

Southeast Asia

Turtle farming in Southeast Asia goes back a very long time. Countries like Thailand and Vietnam have many small farms run by families. In Thailand, about six million baby turtles were made each year in the late 1990s. In Vietnam, farms near Ha Tinh have done well, raising thousands of turtles and helping local incomes.

United States

Turtle farming in the United States started in the early 1900s, mostly in states like Maryland and North Carolina. But by the late 20th century, most turtles sold in the U.S. were caught from the wild. Louisiana has had many turtle farms, making millions of turtles each year, mostly to sell to other countries. A rule was made to stop selling small turtles inside the U.S. to keep diseases away, but farms can still sell turtles to other countries with the right permits.

Cayman Islands

The Cayman Turtle Farm in the Cayman Islands raises green sea turtles for food, which is a tradition there. Started in 1968, the farm makes over 1,800 turtles a year and has let many go back into the ocean. The farm also works to attract tourists and helps stop people from taking turtles from the wild.

Europe

In Eastern Europe, especially North Macedonia, turtle farms provide pets to shops in European Union countries.

Effect on wild populations

Farm-raised turtles are now sold more often in markets, especially in China. By about 2007, most turtles sold came from farms, not from the wild. But this can be bad for wild turtles. Some farmers use wild turtles for breeding. This can make people catch the last wild turtles.

Some people try to help wild turtles by raising farm turtles and letting them go. But experts say this might spread sickness from farms to the wild.