Aquatic Snorkling with Sea Turtles St. Thomas Question

[MarriedToAPrince]

Does anyone know if the sea turtles are 100% in their natural habitat or if there are nets or barriers keeping them there?

 

[shosh1530]

I'm fairly certain that excursion is at the same beach we went to with a private tour on St. Thomas last summer. There were many large excursion groups there and we did not stay long.

It is a regular beach (no nets) with natural sea grass that sea turtles are likely to come feed on. We saw two different ones and some manta rays! It was pretty awesome.

 

[dcassetta]

Does anyone know if the sea turtles are 100% in their natural habitat or if there are nets or barriers keeping them there?

Sea turtles in the United States, including in the USVI, are a protected species. They cannot be contained or netted. And if you go on an excursion where turtles are in the area, they’ll ask you not to touch them.

 

[5Texans]

Did this one last year and they are freely swimming. We had a great time and a turtle swam so close to me to surface that I had to back up to avoid touching it.

 

[Stitch'sCousin]

As the other posters have mentioned the turtles are free swimming. We only saw a couple of them the first time we did a snorkelling excursion in St. Thomas. What we thought was really neat was when we saw a line of about 8-10 sea horses swimming past us as we were snorkelling.

 

[ladyofthetramp]

We found them at Magen's. We took the beach excursion and brought our own equipment. They are magical!

 

[YoungFam]

The location is right next to their big university (I can't remember the name), and the guides are students studying marine biology at said university. There are no nets, but there are typically a few sailboats parked, which creates a little bit of a bay, We saw 10 turtles over an hour, some within a foot or two of us.