OUR GOAL FOR 2025! $60,000
Ocean Surfari and Reef Surfari have partnered with Friends of Virgin Islands National Park. To help with their missions, if you book a trip or buy one of our special shirts, we will make a donation. Purchasing from our 'Let's Make A Difference' selection means Ocean Surfari/Reef Surfari will donate $5 to whichever program you choose.
In 2023, we donated more than $46,000; in 2024, more than $51,000. And we hope to raise $60,000 in 2025! With your help we can do that!Â
"Let's Make A Difference" Together!
Monthly Totals
January Total $5,746.50
February Total $4,673
BOOK A TRIP AND WE WILL DONATE 5!
SEA TURTLES
Your donation will help the Turtle Monitoring and Protection Program aims to protect sea turtle nests, facilitate research projects, and spread awareness of sea turtle conservation in Virgin Islands National Park and its surrounding waters including the Virgin Islands Coral Reef National Monument.
When booking, you will have a choice of which program to support. Selecting Turtles means Ocean Surfari/Reef Surfari will donate $5 to Friends of the Park's Turtle preservation program.
SEA TURTLES
Sea turtles have been swimming the world's oceans for more than 100 million years.
Today, they are critically endangered by national and international classifications.
Four of the seven species can be seen in the waters around the USVI: hawksbills, greens, leatherbacks, and loggerheads. The leatherback, hawksbill and greens sea turtles are known to nest on the beaches of St. John. Loggerheads are very rare but have been spotted. Hawksbill sea turtles comprise most of our nests on St. John.
While these turtles nest year-round, the peak of the nesting season is from August to November. During this time, these turtles will return to their natal beaches and deposit between 3-5 nests at 14-day intervals. Each nest contains 80-200 ping-pong shaped eggs that incubate for around 55-75 days. Leatherbacks have also been known to nest on St. John.
In fact, Trunk Bay was named after the large 'trunk-like' turtles using the area as a nesting ground.
CORAL REEF
Your donation will support our lionfish hunters and the divers required to provide therapeutics to the corals impacted by Stony Coral Tissue Loss. Your donation will also help provide education and outreach about the value of coral reef protection and help our local scientists research the best techniques for breeding resilient corals.
Selecting Coral means Ocean Surfari/Reef Surfari will donate $5 to Friends of the Park's Coral preservation and restoration program.
CORAL REEF
Often hidden beneath the surface of the sea, coral reefs are among the richest ecosystems in the world as they provide marine life with essential habitat and supply communities with food from fisheries, livelihoods like ours and they help provide coastline protection against tropical storms.
Two major threats to our local coral reefs are the overpopulation of lionfish,
and the Stony Coral Tissue Loss Disease.
Lionfish eat herbivores, and herbivores eat algae from coral reefs. Without herbivores, algal growth goes unchecked, which can seriously harm the health of coral reefs.
Stony Coral Tissue Loss Disease arrived in the Virgin Islands a few years ago and divers across the region have created strike teams to provide antibiotic treatments and monitoring to help curb the spread.
YOUTH: OUR FUTURE
Your donation will help support the Learn to Swim program for local Virgin Islanders, train and certify local lifeguards and provide youth with educational opportunities to use the Virgin Islands National Park as a classroom. Additionally, it will support the playground that is the gateway into the Park. This area will host many programs for youth.
When booking you will have a choice of which program to support. Selecting Our Youth means Ocean Surfari/Reef Surfari will donate $5 to Friends of the Park's youth program.
YOUTH: OUR FUTURE
Young people are our future, and they will be the stewards and ambassadors for protecting our islands.
We aim to inspire the next generation to engage and use nature and our sea as their classroom.
We need to ensure equitable access to our National Park and all its natural and cultural resources to spark their desire to protect them and to become the action-focused leaders our islands need.
