Sea turtles have been foraging and nesting in the BVI for centuries, but formal documentation of these events didn’t begin until the early 1980’s when the Conservation & Fisheries Department (CFD) was established. In the early days of the programme, dedicated CFD staff spent countless hours on leatherback (locally known as trunk), green and hawksbill nesting beaches in hopes of finding a turtle or her tracks. Those early records provided turtle species, date and location of nestings, as well as measurements of turtles or their tracks. However, little to no information was known about foraging turtles except for catch statistics reported by local turtle fishermen.

In recent years, the marine turtle monitoring & awareness program has developed in the British Virgin Islands. With DEF staff coordinating and leading the way, along with the help of international and regional agencies such as the Darwin Initiative, the Department for Environment, Food & Rural Affairs (DEFRA), the Marine Conservation Society, the Marine Turtle Research Group and WIDECAST, a number of different projects are currently in progress.

These include:
 · Leatherback monitoring at nesting beaches
 · Leatherback tracking with satellite tags
 · In-water capture of Hawksbill and Green Turtles (tag & release)
 · Genetic sampling 
 · Monitoring of Green & Hawksbill nesting sites in Anegada 
 · Caribbean Turtlewatch
 · Yachters turtle surveys
 · Socio-economic surveys 

In October 2001 the TCOT (Turtles of the Caribbean Overseas Territories) Project was launched in all 6 UK overseas territories to assess the status of endangered marine turtles in the Caribbean. Through this project, CFD staff was trained in turtle biology, conservation, monitoring and research techniques. This project also provided tagging equipment for both nesting and foraging turtles which brought a new dimension to turtle monitoring in the BVI.

All turtles caught both in the water or while nesting on the beach are tagged with flipper tags and injected with a small microchip that can permanently identify a turtle. The use of tags allows CFD scientists to not only count the number of turtles in the BVI but also monitor their growth and movement patterns. All turtles also have a DNA sample taken in order to determine its genetic makeup and ultimately where it came from. Turtles that nest on the same beach have a similar genetic makeup, similar to how human families have similar genes. Lastly, blood sampling helps to determine the sex of a foraging turtle. On two occasions a satellite transmitter was attached to a nesting turtle, one on a leatherback, the other on a hawksbill. These transmitters allow anyone to track their movement over hundreds and possibly thousands of miles.

TCOT efforts were supplemented by the commencement of The Darwin Initiative on Anegada in October 2003. Although the TCOT Project ended in July 2004, CFD continues to monitor both nesting and foraging turtles. The Darwin Initiative will continue until 2006 but the BVI Turtle Monitoring Programme will continue as long as there are turtles!!