野生动物生态失去平衡之例证：亚洲大量进口 美国佛州龟快被吃光

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野生动物生态失去平衡之例证：亚洲大量进口 美国佛州龟快被吃光


包括中国在内的东亚各国经济急速发展，也带动了当地对食用龟需求，间接导致美国佛罗里达州出口到亚洲的野生龟大增。这虽然改善佛罗里达渔民生计，但也有环保人士担心影响生态，害怕佛州野生龟可能会被「吃到绝种」。

据《洛杉矶时报》报道，龟肉、龟血传统以来在亚洲都视为具有食疗作用，经多年捕猎，中国和东南亚的野生龟数量骤减，于是食家纷纷在全球物色新的供应来源。同时，美国本土的亚裔人口也持续增长，在内外需求同告增长下，愈来愈多野生龟给送上了餐桌。其中软壳龟由于肉的比例较多，而且壳也可食用，因此最受欢迎。

软壳龟主要产于美国南部淡水区，分布在德州、俄克拉荷马、阿拉巴马、密西西比诸州，但由于各州政府均禁止或严格限制商业捕龟，因此佛州是主要捕猎地。

乌龟捕获后，要么供应美国本土，要么经东西两岸以及墨西哥湾，输往香港、华南和台湾等地。

每天出口3万只

    美国每年出口往亚洲的乌龟数目并无具体数字，1999年国际间曾经估计数量约在每年1,000万只之谱，也就是平均每天3万只。而且种种迹象显示，过年9年供应量有增无减。

有环保人士警告，消耗量庞大，野生龟的生态必定受到严重影响。佛州的保育人士亚瑞斯形容，最可怕的是不管美国输出多少龟肉，永远无法满足亚洲的需求，因此他与33位龟类专家致函佛州野生动物委员会，要求把捕龟量限定每人每年限捕一只。佛州州长克里斯特也加以响应，支持禁止商业捕龟。

环保人士虽然大力呼吁，但渔民却有不同见解。佛州最大的龟肉供货商托马斯反驳说，州内有8,000个湖泊和不计其数的河溪，全都「满是乌龟」，不存在生态受影响之虞。

    他又指直到数年前，除了水族馆外根本没有人愿意收购活龟，行业难得迎来有利可图日子，政府不应该破坏他们生计。身在南佛州的渔民吉利斯也说，野外乌龟数目充足，他以平均每磅1.5元的价钱，高峰捕猎期每天的收入可达400至500美元。

面对渔民和环保双重压力下，佛州野生动物委员会颁布了每天限捕20只的临时措施，直至订出长远政策为止。

Asia appetite for turtles seen as a threat to Florida species

The reptiles, especially softshell turtles, are prized in China as food and as a source for traditional medicines. U.S. experts fear the trade could lead to extinctions.
By Kim Christensen
December 27, 2008
The turtle tank at Nam Hoa Fish Market is empty, but not to worry: The manager of this bustling Chinatown store says he has plenty in back.

"Big ones," he says, spreading his hands as wide as a Christmas turkey.

He nods to a worker, who slides a large, waxed-cardboard box from a stack behind the counter and strips off the lid. Inside is a squirming burlap bag, from which he dumps two 15-pound softshell turtles that hit the concrete with a clop, then flail helplessly on their backs.

"Miami," the shopkeeper says of the reptiles' origins. "All from Miami."

Fresh off a plane at Los Angeles International Airport, one of the hubs of the sprawling international turtle trade, the critters will help feed a huge and growing appetite for freshwater turtles as food and medicine.

The demand pits ancient culture against modern conservation and increasingly threatens turtle populations worldwide. As Asian economies boomed, more and more people began buying turtle, once a delicacy beyond their budgets. Driven in particular by Chinese demand, Asian consumption has all but wiped out wild turtle populations not just in China, but in Laos, Vietnam, Cambodia and elsewhere in the region. Now conservationists fear that the U.S. turtle population could be eaten into extinction.

"It's insatiable," says Matt Aresco, a Florida biologist and director of the private Nokuse Plantation conservation reserve in the Florida Panhandle. "If we harvested every single turtle in Florida and sent every single one to Asia, there would still be a demand for more," he says. "That's how scary it is."

Federal law prohibits the capture of endangered or protected species. But it does not cover common turtles such as Florida's softshells, whose widely varying population estimates range from 4 million to 20 million. Softshells also abound in other, mostly Southern, states, some of which, including Texas, Oklahoma, Alabama and Mississippi, have banned or severely limited commercial harvests. Until recently, Florida had no limits on softshell harvests.

In Chinese communities around the world, turtles are coveted for their meat, which is thought to enhance longevity and sexual prowess. They're also used to make tonics believed to boost the immune system, and for other traditional medicines intended to treat an array of ailments, including cancer, arthritis and heart disease.

Carl Chu, the author of "Finding Chinese Food in Los Angeles," recalls growing up in his native Taiwan and watching as turtles' heads were cut off and their blood mixed with alcohol, then drunk as an aphrodisiac. It's one small illustration of an age-old Chinese belief that all kinds of food are therapeutic, he says.

"Anything that can be eaten is eaten to obtain some medicinal effect, and that includes turtles," he says.

Helen Nguyen, who has owned Nam Hoa Fish Market for 26 years, says that many of the turtles she sells for $6.99 a pound, before butchering, end up as soup in Chinese restaurants in Alhambra and Monterey Park, communities with large Asian populations.

The big, brownish-green softshells are most desirable because a 12-pounder will yield about half its weight in meat, she says. Its leathery shell also can be steamed and eaten.

"Most often, older people eat it," Nguyen says. "For the body. For the health. Makes you healthy."

In 1999, an international consortium of biologists and others estimated that the Asian turtle trade had grown to about 10 million of the reptiles a year, or 30,000 a day. By many accounts, demand has since grown dramatically.

During the peak season in late summer and early fall, the creatures are pulled by the thousands from Florida lakes, rivers, ponds, canals, drainage ditches and abandoned phosphate pits.

Those who catch them typically use baited hooks on trotlines, some stretching for miles. Their catch is bagged, boxed and shipped live to U.S. customers on both coasts and the Gulf of Mexico -- and to Asian gateways such as Hong Kong and Taiwan.

One Florida seafood dealer said his company had processed up to 20,000 pounds a week -- a couple of thousand adult turtles. Another broker ships nearly that much, according to a Florida Fish and Wildlife Conservation Commission report this year.

Many of the shipments go through LAX.

"In rough numbers, it's probably about 800 turtles a week, and they're going to southern China and Hong Kong," says Joe Ventura, an inspector with the U.S. Fish and Wildlife Service in Los Angeles. "It used to be a luxury item there. Now it's just a routine thing that people eat."

------------引自： http://www.latimes.com/news/local/la-me-turtle27-2008dec27,0,4252872.story

《本草纲目》中对乌龟药用价值的记载

水 龟   本经上品 释 名 玄衣督邮。龟甲：神屋、败龟板、败将、漏天机。
气 味
　　龟甲：甘，平，有毒。肉：甘，酸，温，无毒。血：咸，寒，无毒。胆汁：苦，寒，无毒。
主 治
　　龟甲：
　　1、阴虚血弱。用龟甲(炙熟)、地黄(九蒸九晒)、黄蘖(盐水浸炒)、知母(酒炒)各四两，在石器内研为末，加猪脊髓和丸，如梧子大。每服百丸、空心温酒下。一方：与上方同，但去地黄，加五味子(炒)一两。
　　2、疟疾不止。用龟甲烧存性，研为末。每服一匙，酒送下。
　　3、难产催生。用龟甲烧存性，研为末，酒送服一匙。又方：治经过三、五天还分娩不出以及女子交骨不开，用干龟壳一个（酥炙），妇女头发一把（烧灰），川芎、当归各一两。每取七钱水煎服。隔半小时左右，再服药一次，生胞死胎都能产下。
　　4、肿毒初起。用龟甲一枚，烧过，研为末，酒送服四钱。
　　5、小儿头疮。用龟甲烧灰敷涂。
　　6、口、耳生疮。治方同上。
　　7、臁疮朽臭。用生龟一个，取壳，醋炙黄，更煅存性，出火气后，加入轻粉、麝香。先用葱汤洗净患处，再搽药。

　　龟肉：
　　1、热气湿痹，腹内急热。用龟肉同五味煮食，微泄为效。
　　2、筋骨疼痛。用乌龟一个，分作四脚，每用一脚，加天花粉、枸杞子各一钱二分，雄黄五分，麝香五分，槐花三钱，水一碗，煎服。
　　3、多年咳嗽不愈。用生龟三个，照平常吃龟方法治净，去肠，以水五升，煮取三升，浸曲，酿秫米四升，常取饮服。
　　4、下痢及泻血。用乌龟肉拌沙糖，和椒，炙煮吃下。多吃几效即愈。
　　5、虚劳咯血。用葱、椒、酱油煮乌龟吃。
　　6、年久痔漏。用乌龟二、三个，煮取肉，加茴香、葱酱，常吃，忌食糟、醋等热物。

　　龟血：
　　1、涂脱肛，治打扑伤损。把龟血和酒饮之，还可把龟肉捣烂涂于患处。

　　龟胆汁：
　　1、痘后目肿，经月不开。取龟胆汁点之。

　　龟溺（尿）：
　　1、治聋。用龟尿滴耳。
　　2、治大人中风舌暗，小儿惊风不语。用乌龟尿点少许于舌下。
　　3、治龟胸、龟背。用龟尿摩其胸、背。
　　4、治须发早白。用龟尿调水蛭细末，日日撚（用手指搓转）之。

大红

上边的图不是乌龟，那是甲鱼。

爱党爱国侨胞

大红
上边的图不是乌龟，那是甲鱼。

咱们把佛罗里达州的甲鱼也给吃光了算了，呵呵