Lighting Survey

Turtle friendly lights are hard to find, other than the sun and moon. Sea turtle mothers will often not emerge or lay eggs on a brightly lit beach. Sea turtle nests often hatch a few hours after sunset, though some will hatch at any time of day. Scientists theorize that hatchlings head for the brightest horizon, which should be the sea, reflecting moonlight and starshine through the darkest hours. Both the darkness and the sheer number of hatchlings making a dash for the sea helps protect them from predators. Right now, it's part of my job to protect them by working with local property owners to limit their lights, and carry out other sea turtle friendly practices on their beach front residences.



As 2007 was the worst year ever in the park, we are renewing and strengthening efforts to educate the public and encourage them to make some positive changes before nesting season begins again in a few months.



After spending the day at Fort Pickens learning about the plan to remove dead pines from the campground areas and counting shore birds, Monica, Andrew and I decided it was time to do another beachfront lighting survey. Lots of new construction has been completed since last turtle season, and a lot more will be done before May, so this is only preliminary.



We met at 6pm at SRIA to pick up their 4 person mule. Driving on the Pensacola Beach is never easy, and was worse than ever last night with so many tire ruts from construction vehicles and beach cleaning equipment. I think they haven't yet read the memo about vehicle use on beaches increasing erosion -- it will lead to yet another renourishment project soon, but that's another story.



I was surprised that the police didn't stop us. Traffic on the beach, especially at night, is very rare, and we drove right past the Pensacola sub-station twice. The mule is pretty quiet in the wind though and you would have had to look out at just the right time to see us. We did have permission as we're the biologist who assist the SRIA with their beach.



The lights seem to be the same problem areas from last year -- the Hilton, Portofino (but they're working with us to change :)), Tristan Towers, Days Inn etc. Tristan Towers was so bad in July and August that we had to move a nest almost a mile and a half away just to decrease disorientation issues. The new parking lot at the Dunes/Holiday Inn Express looks great. All post-hurricane rebuilds in excess of 50% are required to have turtle friendly lights, but some of the approved lights are not turtle friendly, which is odd, and puts us in an awkward position. How can we comment negatively on lights that passed through the alphabet soup of agencies, but are still bad?



I worry that people on the beach are weary of hearing about things they need to change on their houses to better help the environment. I know, given a chance, most people love to help sea turtles, at least if they've seen a nest hatch. It's harder and harder to facilitate that as our nest numbers decrease and hatchling releases decrease along with them. Who wouldn't want to help this little guy find his way home?



We have grants to help defray the cost of changing lights and fixtures, but we can't assuage the stress resulting from people hearing, yet again, that something has to change. I hope the cute turtles will win them all over -- that's my task for the next three to four months as we wait for the birds and the turtles to start nesting again. At least it's lots of indoor work!