"How To" Have Turtle Friendly Lighting on Your Adopted Beach!

In response to a question posed on "turtle friendly" beach lighting on the Sea Turtle listserver this response outlines how you can check your beach and see if it meets the recommendations of sea turtle scientists.

The guidance you seek is on the selection and use of so called "turtle friendly lighting." These are lights that serve our interests with minimal effects on sea turtles. 

Any light source can be turtle friendly to the extent that it is hidden from the nesting beach. A lot of commonly available light sources have designs that make this task easier. The list includes fixtures with baffles and shielding that direct light efficiently downward, which is normally where we want light (so we can see where we step). Fixtures that shine upward and
outward are in the unfriendly category, which includes sources usually meant to be more decorative than functional.

To ensure that good lights don't go bad, take a stroll on the beach at night. Walk up and down the beach near you house and look for lights. An upright posture is fine--no need to crawl like a turtle. If you can see light from any artificial sources, including indirect light from glowing buildings or trees, then there may be a problem for nearby nesting turtles and their hatchlings trying to find the sea.

For developed areas with complex lighting needs, it's difficult to hide all the light. Best practices here are to hide lighting as completely as possible and use long-wavelength (red, orange-yellow) sources where some light leaks out. Many of the best long-wavelength sources are LED lamps. As a general rule, humans see this reddish light better than sea turtles do. But the light is not invisible to sea turtles, so like fat-free cookies,
moderation is suggested.

Because light near the horizon is most attractive to sea-finding turtle hatchlings, and because blocking a light is often as good as turning it off, it's very helpful to keep a naturally vegetated dune between any lighted area and the nesting beach. A nice dune silhouette will cover a multitude of lighting sins, including light from house windows. Really? My house windows too? Well, considering that the light projected from windows at night helps
only those outside to see in, then drawing the drapes seems reasonable if only for modesty's sake. Seeking ways to live with sea turtles may mean occasionally examining ourselves for modesty.  

Blair Witherington

GOOD LIGHTING

BAD LIGHTING

For approved sea turtle lighting in Florida please visit: http://myfwc.com/media/418417/SeaTurtle_LightingGuidelines.pdf

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Blair Witherington is a research scientist with the Florida Fish and Wildlife Research Institute (USA) where he has worked since 1992 on sea turtle biology and conservation. Blair received his BS and MS in Biology from the University of Central Florida in 1984 and 1986, and was graduated with a PhD from the Department of Zoology, University of Florida, in 1992. Both of his graduate theses were on subjects of sea turtle biology. In more than 24 years of work with sea turtles biology and conservation, Blair has served on numerous graduate student committees, panels, and working groups. He has an appointment as adjunct assistant professor in the Department of Zoology, University of Florida, has served as president of the 20th International Sea Turtle Symposium, and is a member of the Marine Turtle Specialist Group of the IUCN as Vice Chair of the Northwest Atlantic region. He has authored or contributed to more than 40 scientific articles, monographs, and book chapters, and he has written three books on sea turtles and other natural history subjects. Blair has participated in 24 annual sea turtle symposia.

COURTESY ISTS - International Sea Turtle Society
http://www.seaturtlesociety.org/news/ists_2009_nominations.shtml