Share the beach with sea turtles

Share the beach with sea turtles

In a few short weeks, sea turtles will again repeat the cycle of coming ashore and laying their eggs, which will sleep under the sand until time to hatch. Then, the baby turtles will fight to the top of the nest, then make the journey to the Gulf of Mexico.

However, the cycle is interrupted when lights confuse the little hatchlings, and for years, the motto has been, "Lights out for turtles!"

Brightly lit beaches disorient the nesting sea turtles and their hatchlings, but beach residents can't be expected to live in the dark, either. Even the smallest light, such as a porch or deck light, or table lamp visible through a window can distract the mother or hatchling, leading them onto a road to be hit by a vehicle, victimized by fire ants or predators or to suffer from deadly dehydration.

Now, there are ways to coexist with sea turtles, including using turtle friendly light bulbs available to participants in the Turtle Friendly Beach Program (TFBP). Escambia County does not have an ordinance regulating turtle friendly lighting, so at this point all improvements are voluntary.

Here are some ways beach front property owners can modify lighting to be more turtle friendly:

Turn off unnecessary lights. Don't use decorative lighting (such as runner lights or uplighting of vegetation) in areas that are visible from the beach and permanently remove, disable, or turn off fixtures that cannot be modified in any other way.

For lights that can be repositioned, face them away from the beach so that the light source is no longer visible.

Shield the light source. Materials such as aluminum flashing can be used as a shield to direct light and keep it off the beach. When shielding lights, it is important to make sure they are shielded from all areas on the beach (including from either side and on top), and not just from the beach directly in front of the light. Black oven paint may be used as a temporary solution.

Light sockets with an exposed light source (such as plain bulbs) should be replaced with fixtures that are specially made to recess and/or the light source should be shielded.

Replace fixtures that scatter light in all directions (such as globe lights or carriage lights) with directional fixtures that point down and away from the beach.

Turtles begin bubbling out of the sand as the hatching occurs. National park service employees Kirsten Dahlen and Monica Cain scoop up the hatchlings and move them to a cooler for protection from predators until they are released into the Gulf of Mexico later that night.

Replace lights on poles with low profile, low-level lamps so that the light source and reflected light are not visible from the beach.

Replace incandescent, fluorescent, and high intensity lighting with the lowest wattage low-pressure sodium vapor lighting or replace white incandescent bulbs with the yellow "bug" light variety of 25 watts or less for incandescent and 9 watts or less for compact fluorescent.

Plant or improve vegetation buffers (such as sea grapes and other native beach vegetation) between the light source and the beach to screen light from the beach.

Use shielded motion detector lights for lighting, and set them on the shortest time setting.

To reduce spillover from indoor lighting move light fixtures away from windows, apply window tint to your windows that meets the 45% inside to outside transmittance standards for tinted glass (you'll save on air conditioning costs too!), or use window treatments (blinds, curtains) to shield interior lights from the beach.

Although not appropriate for the short-term solutions that are needed immediately, there are several potential sources of state and federal funding for long-term lighting improvements. The grants listed below require an application and are time sensitive with specific deadlines. We encourage you to visit the sites provided to see if they may be applicable to your situation.