Is there anyone out there that know the answer to the above question.

Michelle,

In August there was someone, did not appear to be a tourist, using a metal detector on Coki Beach. I don't know if it was legal or not.

Maybe he found my white gold and pearl necklace..... 🙁

Gerie

Some places on STT allow it....others don't. Magens Beach, for example doesn't...Hull Bay Beach does. On Water Isle, well, you can probably do it anywhere, as there isn't much of an 'authority' presence...

I know we had a discussion about this fairly recently. You might check the archives. I do have one observation about the idea of metal detecting. Many of the beaches in the Caribbean are turtle hatching areas. Even if it is legal, please be aware of turtle season and don't poke around in the sand.

I AM NOT VERY GOOD @ COMPUTER STUFF BUT I AM GOING TO ST. THOMAS, USVI NEXT FEB. AND AM INTERESTED IN BUYING A METAL DETECTOR FOR BEACH COMBING. DO YOU KNOW IF METAL DETECTING PUBLIC BEACHES IS LEGAL OR NOT????

Is there a specific season for turtle laying & hatching?

It has to do with the procreation of the species.

On STT and STJ there is not much turtle nesting except for a few St John beaches and remote St Thomas beaches. Most of the turtle nesting activity in the VI occurs on St Croix. It is still good to be careful though when digging about in the sand since you never know where a nest could be! Some turtles can be pretty wayward and nest wherever they feel like it.
That said, for the two turtles that could potentially nest on St John and St Thomas: hawksbill sea turtles nest year round, but are concentrated from the end of June to October and green sea turtles nest around the same time. Leatherbacks in the VI nest almost exclusively in St Croix from mid-late March to mid July.
Egg incubation takes about 2 months for all species give or take a few days so hatching can occur into January for Greens and Hawksbills, and into September for leatherbacks.

I get the concept as well as the motivation & drive, it was the question of a specific season or just continual effort that i am uncertain of.

If you use the search engine on this forum and type in "metal detecting" you will find a whole bunch of information from a year ago and more on the subject. Forum moderator "Islander" went out of his/her way to research the issue.

Farmboy, I guess your post of query was answered by stxem008's post a few minutes earlier so you overlapped and now you know! Cheers!