Friends Sea Turtle Program Research Published In Marine Turtle Newsletter
PRESS RELEASE | The Virgin Islands National Park Sea Turtle Program run by Friends of Virgin Islands National Park has been cataloging underwater photographs of sea turtles dating back to 2012 using photo-ID and facial markings to track the presence of fibropapillomatosis (FP) in green sea turtles in Maho Bay, St. John, USVI. Last month the highly acclaimed Marine Turtle Newsletter (Issue Number 169, October 2025) that features information concerning the biology, conservation, management, legal status and survival prospects of all species of endangered and threatened sea turtles, published a paper on this work authored by Adren Anderson and Willow Melamet.
The paper entitled: Using photo-ID to monitor the status of fibropapillomatosis in green turtles at Maho Bay, St. John, United States Virgin Islands, discusses how facial markings are used to track sea turtles and monitor the status of FP in a foraging population in order to establish a baseline to aid in future research and management decisions.
“This prestigious publication is a credit to our dedicated team and the St. John residents who volunteer their time to protect the sea turtles in our waters,” said Tonia Lovejoy, Executive Director, Friends of Virgin Islands National Park.”It is important research like this that helps inform our ongoing conservation work and future actions.”
Fibropapillomatosis (FP) is a panzootic disease affecting sea turtles worldwide, primarily green turtles (Chelonia mydas). This neoplastic disease presents as both external and internal tumors that can interfere with an individual’s sight, ability to swim, reproduce, forage, and evade predators. The use of photographic ID (PID) has proven to be an efficient and alternative capture-mark-recapture method to evaluate the presence, absence, growth and severity of FP tumors over time.
The paper discusses the monitoring of FP tumor status using PID by assigning tumor scores to individuals, tracking growth and regression of tumors for recaptured individuals, determining the percentage of the marked population with FP, and evaluating the efficacy of this technique. In addition, a baseline was created to estimate the current status of FP tumors in the population to aid in future studies assessing tumor causation as well as management techniques for minimizing threats to this population of foraging green turtles.
“Between February 2012 and July 2024, 472 encounters revealed 95 individuals,” said Adren Anderson, Maho Turtle ID Study Coordinator, Friends of Virgin Islands National Park. “Unfortunately FP was detected, or suspected in 71 of them.”
In addition, from March 2020 to July 2024, a subset of 66 individuals were assigned a tumor score using a 5-tiered scoring system. Another 51 individuals were evaluated between June 2013 to July 2024, showing various trends in tumor growth and remission.
The Virgin Islands National Park Sea Turtle Program funded and managed by Friends of Virgin Islands National Park aims to protect sea turtle nests, facilitate research projects, and spread awareness of sea turtle conservation in the Park and its surrounding waters including the Virgin Islands Coral Reef National Monument. The work encompasses nest protection, volunteer beach monitoring, research, and visitor and community outreach including education outreach with schools on St. John and St. Thomas.
More information on sea turtle protection on St. John can be found on our website here.
