It was a good ending to a two-year investigation into illegal trafficking of protected diamondback terrapins, many of them taken from local salt marshes in Little Egg Harbor Township.

On Oct. 18, Stockton University staff and longtime Conserve Wildlife Foundation of New Jersey project manager Ben Wurst released several terrapins back to the Great Bay Wildlife Management salt marsh. The terrapins were illegally collected as breeders for the pet trade. They were confiscated by the U.S. Fish and Wildlife Service in 2018 as the perpetrator attempted to export them through the postal service.