History as a Delicacy
Diamondback terrapins were heavily harvested for food in colonial America, and probably before that by native Americans. This Turtles were so abundant and easily obtained that slaves and even the Continental Army ate large numbers of terrapins. Terrapins become a fashionable delicacy and sold for as much as $5 each in 1917. Huge numbers of terrapins were harvested from marshes and marketed in cities. By the early 1900s populations in the northern part of the range were severely depleted, and the south was greatly reduced as well. As early as 1902 the U.S. Bureau of Fisheries (which later became the U.S. Fish and Wildlife Service) recognized that terrapin populations were declining and started building large research facilities in South Carolina to investigate methods for captive breeding terrapins for food.