Patrolling St. Kitts' Beaches to Protect Nesting Leatherback Turtles

The St. Kitts Sea Turtle Monitoring Network (SKSTMN) is a community-based nonprofit founded in January 2003 that conducts early-morning and overnight patrols on St. Kitts' two primary leatherback nesting beaches, tagging turtles and recording nest data in partnership with the Department of Marine Resources. A long-term study built on the network's monitoring recorded 2,419 adult female leatherback emergence events and identified 259 individual nesting females between 2003 and 2016, one of the most complete leatherback datasets in the Eastern Caribbean. SKSTMN also runs offshore tagging for foraging hawksbill and green turtles, school education programs and eco-tours, and advocates for stronger sea turtle protection laws.