The Nevis Sea Turtle Conservation Project seeks to tag as many turtles as possible that nest on the main rookeries on the island. Turtles have been poached from the beaches while they have been nesting in the past so one of the main aims of this project is to protect all nesting turtles. The project seeks further to extend the tagging programme to those sea turtles that are foraging offshore the island that may not necessarily nest on Nevis. Public education is a critical component of this project and this will be done by holding summer sea turtle programmes for children, by Nevis Turtle Group (NTG) members appearing on radio and television programmes to discuss sea turtle conservation and by organizing contests among schoolchildren that will get them involved in sea turtle conservation. Furthermore, groups of children and adults will be taken to the beaches to observe sea turtles nesting and to assist in doing beach patrols. Student volunteers will be engaged to assist especially with the night and early morning patrols with the aim of producing a cadre of persons to continue the work of the Nevis Turtle Group. Additionally, the group will continue to work with beach front property owners to help make all beaches turtle friendly.

The NTG started sea turtle conservation work in 2001 to 2002 when it identified the main nesting beaches on the island. The project started with one and then two volunteers doing patrols during the day. In 2003 a group of four volunteers started doing the night patrols and the tagging of sea turtles on the two main nesting beaches on Nevis. These persons were Charles Parris, Rene Walters, Angela Walters and E. Lemuel Pemberton.

The main nesting beaches were found to be on the northwest coast of the island and only hawksbills were observed nesting during the first year of beach patrols. Subsequently green turtles and leatherbacks were also found nesting on the island’s beaches. From a small group of four persons monitoring the beaches conservation efforts have grown to the extent that on Friday nights (Family Night) there are regularly over twenty persons participating in the beach patrols. It is hoped that conservation efforts will continue to grow from strength to strength and that sea turtles can become the flagship species for marine conservation on Nevis.