About EEMP

The East End Marine Park is managed by the Coastal Zone Management (CZM) Division of the Department of Planning and Natural Resources. CZM works with other Divisions in the Department to address natural resource challenges in the territory. Those divisions include the Division of Fish and Wildlife, Division of Environmental Enforcement, and Division of Environmental Protection.

The Park is a multi-use Marine Protected Area, in order to allow for a variety of legal uses. Marine protected areas are an essential component of fisheries management in today’s world, in which ocean habitats and species are subject to a variety of threats. Closed areas provide safe havens for juvenile and adult fish which use those habitats for all or part of their life cycle. Animals moving from closed areas provide replenishment to fished areas elsewhere.

The Park works with stakeholders large and small to ensure their actions and activities comply with existing laws and regulations, and have a low impact on our marine environment and shoreline habitats. This might mean informing beachgoers at Chenay Bay that they cannot use their speargun to hunt in that area, helping a homeowner in Turner Hole to select an appropriate mooring location for their vessel, or assessing a condo association’s lighting impact with respect to sea turtles.

The Park has a StoryMap which will allow you to explore the habitats which the Park protects. Check out real-time wind and wave conditions at Cramer’s Park with the Park’s Aqualink buoy.

What’s up with Great Pond? We’re so glad you asked.

Where am I and what are the rules?

We get this question a lot!

Check out these resources below to help you! If you are using a mobile phone and you ensure location services are ON for your browser and ON for your phone, you should be able to locate yourself with respect to the zone boundaries, even while you are out on the water.

Zone Lines Only
Zone Lines With Full Explanation of Rules

Visitor Center

The Park’s Visitor Center is a one-of-a-kind experience on St. Croix, and a great way to learn about the marine habitats of the Virgin Islands even before you plunge in to the water. It is open on Thursdays and Fridays and the first Saturday of every month: 9:30 am – 4 pm. See what our friends over at GoToStCroix had to say when they visited!

Visitor Center Info & Directions

Coral Restoration

With help from The Nature Conservancy, the Park established a demonstration coral nursery site near Cramer’s Park in 2019. Learn more about it here, and watch the Eventbrite page to see when the Park’s next swim tour will be.

Internships

The next generation of Crucian marine managers

The Park has hosted UVI SEAS students for several summers, developing the field research skills of young scientists and providing the Park with useful information. Recent projects have included seagrass, whelks, water quality, beach characterization, and coral restoration.

The Park also takes on short and medium term volunteers of all kinds to help achieve mutual goals. If you have an itch to get involved, get in touch!

Other Scientific Research

Marine Protected Areas are of high research interest with respect to their contribution to livelihoods, fish populations, and biodiversity. Research can alert DPNR and the public to early indications of natural resource concern, or inform changes in management strategies. The Park supports a diversity of researchers in their specific goals, providing local knowledge, research questions, background information, and dive support to researchers from near and far.

NOAA’s Coral Reef Conservation Program has supported the Park since before its establishment, and supports a variety of other initiatives in the territory. If you want to know what the territory’s top work items related to coral reef management are, check out the Coral Reef Management Priorities (updated in 2019).