USVI Hawksbill Conservation Action Plan

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The National Save The Sea Turtle Foundation has maintained a long-standing relationship with both the University of the Virgin Islands and the Ocean Foundation’s team at the Sandy Point National Wildlife Refuge in St. Croix. Collectively, we felt the need to expand upon research and conservation projects in the Territory specifically targeted at hawksbill turtles. The efforts we have undertaken so far have greatly expanded nesting surveys, stranding response, and community awareness/involvement. Using the experience we gained in Florida over 20+ years of in-water captures, our team decided we would be the first to methodically survey the nearshore reefs for hawksbill turtles all around the island of St. Croix. In our first season (2025), we were pleasantly surprised to find a robust aggregation of hawksbills residing on both the west and northwest sides of the island. Of note was the wide variety of age groups, from small juveniles through to large males, which provided us the rare opportunity to affix satellite tags to four adult males that were frequenting the reefs near Frederiksted. Our continued research in St. Croix is critical to gathering much-needed baseline data on the status of hawksbill turtles in U.S. waters and highlighting the importance of maintaining healthy coral reef ecosystems throughout the region.