Hope for Sea Turtles Amid Wildlife-friendly Lighting Ordinances

As mother sea turtles make their long trek through the open seas back to their birthplace, members of Escambia County’s Sea Turtle Conservation Program prepare to welcome them home and celebrate the new life this journey will bring. 

“Sea turtle hatchlings are the future of all sea turtles, like our children are our future,” says Kathleen McCrea, NWF fellow and Escambia County Sea Turtle intern. “Minimizing the threats hatchlings face on the beaches we share with them will give them a better chance at surviving to adulthood.”

Threats to Sea Turtles

Unfortunately, sea turtle hatchlings face precarious odds. As marine reptiles, a mother sea turtle lays her eggs on the beach and returns to the sea. She does not remain to guard her nest. The land poses many dangers; with no food or shelter from the sun, sea turtles can only survive on land for a limited time. Hatchlings must reach the ocean quickly after emerging from their nests, and a single detour could mean the difference between life and death.

One of the greatest threats hatchlings face on land is not hungry predators, but streetlamps. Under natural conditions, sea turtle hatchlings emerge and navigate the dark beach in search of the ocean. Their instincts are about efficiency—they need to find the shortest path to the sea. Hatchlings do this by following the brightest horizon, which, without light pollution, is created by celestial lights reflecting off of the ocean. However, artificial sources of light on or near the beach confuse sea turtle hatchlings, causing them to crawl in the wrong direction.

“The exact number of hatchlings who are disoriented and die every year in Florida is unknown, but it’s probably well over 100,000,” said David Godfrey, executive director of the Florida-based Sea Turtle Conservancy.

Small Changes Lead to Big Results

Disorientation happens because sea turtles are especially sensitive to shorter wavelengths of light, such as white light. But we can also use the differences in our vision to help protect them. For most of their lives, sea turtles view their environment through the blue filter of the ocean, and as a result, they did not evolve the ability to see the color red. Lights in the red-orange range of the visible spectrum are much less visible to sea turtles and other wildlife and can light beachfront homes safely.

Other simple changes to our lighting can significantly impact sea turtle hatchling survival rates. Wildlife-friendly lighting follows three main principles: long, low, and shielded. Long refers to the long-wavelength light in the red-orange spectrum. Keeping light fixtures low to the ground helps shield them from the beach and other sensitive habitats. Low-wattage lights are gentle and create less light trespass. Using fixtures designed to direct light downward prevents it from being seen on the beach. 

Wildlife-friendly lighting has human benefits as well. Approximately one-third of all lighting in the U.S. is wasted as light trespass or skyglow. Many think that brightly lit areas are the safest, but excessive glare can cause blind spots. Lower intensity allows our eyes to adjust, longer wavelengths preserve night vision, and less artificial lighting means less eye strain. Becoming more intentional with the directionality, intensity, and usage of our light will help sea turtles and communities alike.

The National Wildlife Federation’s Gulf Program has been working for more than a decade to improve sea turtle habitats and protection using these strategies across the Gulf of Mexico. Together with our partners at Sea Turtle Conservancy (STC), we have been assisting local governments along Florida’s coast, including Escambia County, to improve lighting ordinance language to help ensure better protection for sea turtles.

Lighting Ordinances Benefit Sea Turtles and Humans

Over the past 10 years, Escambia’s efforts to update its ordinances and expand its outreach efforts have had a positive impact on both wildlife and humans. All exterior lighting on Perdido Beach is now required to be wildlife-friendly, regardless of its orientation to the beach, lessening skyglow and protecting other endangered animals such as the Perdido Key beach mouse.

The ordinances also require all windows, doors, and other glass or semi-transparent surfaces to use “Turtle Glass”—glass with a transmittance of 45% or less. Escambia is a great example of how environmental programs can work with locals to protect endangered species. The county holds Barrier Island Lighting Workshops to engage and educate residents on ordinance requirements, and annual lighting surveys are made publicly available through an online map.

Local community member of Pensacola Beach, Gregg Welstead, lives at Palm Beach Condos with his wife and two dogs and has been working over the past two years to make the condo’s lighting wildlife-friendly, as well as to educate tourists and fellow neighbors. He evaluated his property and addressed lighting facing the beaches first. See the images of the Gulf-facing ground-floor lighting before and after.

With Escambia County having some of the state’s best wildlife-friendly lighting ordinances, it has become a beacon of hope for the future of sea turtles.

For more information about the County’s Barrier Island Lighting Ordinance, click here. For more information about NWF’s sea turtle lighting work, click here.

Kathleen McCrea is Escambia County’s Sea Turtle Intern, representing the National Wildlife Federation. She is a recent graduate from the University of West Florida, where she received her bachelor’s in biomedical sciences and planned on attending Medical School. She quickly fell in love with the strong environmental community present at UWF and began getting involved in sea turtle research & conservation.

From her project on how underwater cameras and computer programs can help obtain sea turtle data non-invasively, to her volunteer work at the Gulfarium’s CARE Center, a local rehabilitation site for sea turtles, Kathleen is just beginning her journey of a lifetime of dedication & protection for these amazing animals.

Her plans are now to earn her master’s degree in marine biology and environmental management, with a focus on sea turtles! In the photo at the top of this blog, she is releasing a green sea turtle at Port St. Joe after a mass cold stunning event following a record-breaking snowfall in Florida’s panhandle.