Turtle Team Presents Posters At SE Regional Meeting
PRESS RELEASE | The Friends of Virgin Islands National Park sea turtle team led by Sea Turtle Program Coordinator, Willow Melamet, and Sea Turtle Researcher, Adren Anderson, presented posters on the turtle conservation work being done in Virgin Islands National Park on St. John at the prestigious South East Regional Sea Turtle Meeting (SERSTM) in Hilton Head, South Carolina last week.
The posters presented were:
- Using education and outreach to monitor beaches and promote sea turtle awareness and marine stewardship on St. John, US Virgin Islands.
- Using photo-ID to monitor the status of fibropapillomatosis (FP) in green turtles at Maho Bay, St. John, United States Virgin Islands.
“This is well deserved recognition for the work that the sea turtle team does to protect these endangered species,” said Tonia Lovejoy, Executive Director of Friends of Virgin Islands National Park. “The team works hard to protect nests across our beaches aided by a crew of volunteers; to track the foraging green population impacted by FP in Maho Bay; and to educate our youth and visitors on marine stewardship.”
This poster was presented by Willow Melamet, Adren Anderson, Kaitlyn Cummings, and Katie Ayres from Friends of Virgin Islands National Park and discusses the Virgin Islands National Park Sea Turtle Program’s various education and outreach initiatives that help to protect the sea turtles of St. John through volunteer-based beach monitoring and by spreading awareness of sea turtle conservation within the Virgin Islands National Park. Through these efforts the Sea Turtle Program is able to monitor up to 51 beaches for nesting activity with a team of 95 trained volunteers, teach school children from St. John and St. Thomas about sea turtle ecology, and educate visitors and residents on how to be respectful marine stewards.
Presented by Adren Anderson, Willow Melamet and Katie Ayres from Friends of Virgin Islands National Park, with Stephen Cornett and Kianna Pattengale from the Archie Carr Center for Sea Turtle Research, this poster summarizes the work being done to track the green foraging population and the presence of fibropapillomatosis (FP) in Maho Bay using photo-ID.
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 Virgin Islands National Park Sea Turtle Program has been cataloging underwater photographs of green turtles dating back to 2012 using photo-ID as a means of mark-recapture. The use of photo-ID proves to be a cost-effective and minimally invasive technique to monitor the status of FP in a foraging population and establish a baseline to aid in future research and management decisions.
Between February 2012 and July 2024, 472 total encounters identified 95 individuals with FP being detected in 41 of them (43.2%), and an additional 30 individuals suspected to have early stages of FP (31.6%). Although FP prevalence is high within this population, only a very small portion has moderate to severe afflictions. Encouragingly, remission has been observed from severe and moderate scores.
To learn about sea turtles and their protection, visit the Friends of Virgin Islands National Park’s website at www.friendsvinp.org/sea-turtle
Adren Anderson (l) and Willow Melamet with one of their posters at the SE Regional Sea Turtle Meeting, February 2025
