We were happy to be invited to the Pensacola Beach Glow Run, a 5k event benefiting Catholic Charities of Northwest Florida. In addition to supporting this great group who works within their community we were excited to partner with Sea Grant of Escambia County. Thanks to the dedication of Rick O’Connor’s and Sea Grant support, a brand new sea turtle safe lighting display was unveiled! Beach front lighting is a significant threat to sea turtles during nesting season which runs from May 1st through October 31st in our area. Artificial beach front lighting, lights from buildings, streets, cars, and those used on the beach at night, all negatively impact both nesting females and hatchlings as they interfere with the sea turtles natural behaviors. In nesting females we see risks such as lower nests numbers because sea turtles prefer dark beaches and will avoid well lit areas. If some cases where there are few dark nesting areas, nests maybe clustered together which “increase the rate of hatchling mortality.” (UFL) Both nesting females and hatchlings can succumb to “disorientation” where there beach area is flooded with too much artificial lighting leaving the sea turtles unable to pick up on the natural cues they use to navigate safely back to the surf. Some cues include “wavelength or brightness, horizon shape, continuity, silhouette and slope.” (UFL) As our understanding of sea turtles increase our techniques and conservation tools will also evolve. The lighting display that was unveiled last night shows how advances in the understanding of nesting behaviors has led to improved and more widely available sea turtle friendly lighting. To read more on this see the study completed by The Conservation Clinic at the University of Florida’s Levin College of Law. bitly/1rtNvaj
Posted on: Sat, 25 Oct 2014 13:04:48 +0000
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