2007 Sea Turtle Nesting Season Begins
May 1st is the date that typically begins the loggerhead sea turtle nesting season, here on St. George Island. Volunteers from STAR, Inc. begin to alert homeowners and visitors about lights and volunteers from the St. George Island Volunteer Turtlers start walking the beach in order to find, mark and protect turtle nests.
Sea Turtles have been nesting on St. George Island for thousands of years, but in the last three decades they’ve had to compete with us humans for use of the beach. They visit here for a short time each year, to nest, while we build permanent homes along the edge of their habitat. We light up our homes, while they prefer the darkness.
Research has proven that our house lights, our street lights, and even our flashlights, disturb nesting females and disorients hatchling turtles on their way to the water.
Franklin County adopted the Lighting Ordinance for Marine Turtle Protection in June 1998. The purpose and intent of this ordinance is intended to protect hatchling marine turtles from the adverse effects of artificial lighting, provide overall improvement in nesting habitat degraded by light pollution, and increase successful nesting activity and production of hatchlings on the beaches of Franklin County, Florida.
The Lighting Ordinance in its present form describes standards for new construction activities as well as standards for existing lighting, on homes and businesses, seaward of the Coastal Construction Control Line.
Since 1998, there have been 73 nests that were negatively affected by lights, both house lights and street lights. 3,770 hatchling marine turtles were recorded as disoriented since the adoption of this ordinance, to be eaten by crabs, ants and mammals. The few that make it to the water, after wandering around the beach, become so weak, their chances of survival in the water are small.
Many of these disorientations were caused by lights on homes, directly along the beach, but homes across the street from the beach, and other homes, further away, not covered by the Lighting Ordinance, have also contributed to the deaths of hatchling turtles. Some of the disorientations are caused by the same houses, year after year.
In order to help save Marine Turtles from extinction, and comply with Franklin County’s Lighting Ordinance for Marine Turtle Protection, St. George Island homeowners and business owners bear the responsibility to replace light fixtures that are shown to be the cause of disorientations.
For assistance with Sea Turtle Friendly Lighting on St. George Island, contact Bruce Hall at STAR, Inc. 670-3820. To report disoriented hatchlings, injured or stranded turtles, contact the Marine Turtle Permit Holder, Bruce Drye at 927-2103 or the Florida Fish and Wildlife Conservation Commission at 1-888-404-FWCC or *FWC (mobile phone).