Sea Turtles on St. Croix: Where They Nest & How to Watch

Three species of sea turtle use St. Croix: leatherbacks — the giants — nesting on Sandy Point; greens grazing the seagrass beds; and hawksbills working the reefs. You will very likely swim near one this week. Here's how the island shares water with them.

Where you'll actually see them

Snorkeling, the odds favor you at Buck Island, over the seagrass at Chenay Bay, off the preserve beaches at Jack's and Isaac's — and, per our guests' reviews, on the reef directly in front of the villa. Turtles surface to breathe every few minutes; float quietly and let them come up where they choose.

The leatherback story

Sandy Point National Wildlife Refuge exists because its two-mile beach is the largest leatherback nesting site under the U.S. flag. Females that can outweigh a refrigerator haul out from roughly spring into summer to lay — which is why the entire refuge closes to visitors April 1 through August 31, and opens only on weekend days the rest of the year. The refuge has run decades of tagging and conservation work here; treat the place as the maternity ward it is.

Nesting near the villa

The Nature Conservancy's Jack and Isaac Bay preserve — the hike-in bays five minutes from The Cerulean — protects nesting beaches for greens and hawksbills. If you're on those sands in season, watch for marked nest sites and give them a wide berth.

The etiquette, plainly

Keep distance — several boat lengths swimming, more on sand. Never touch, chase, or block a turtle's path to the surface or the sea. No flash photography; no lights on nesting beaches at night (white light disorients hatchlings). Skip banned sunscreens — the USVI outlawed oxybenzone formulas in 2020 partly for the reefs turtles feed on; mineral zinc bottles are sold island-wide. And if you're lucky enough to see a nest boil — hatchlings streaming for the water — stay back and let the chaos run; it's been working for a hundred million years without our help.