It’s Sea Turtle Nesting Season: Lights Out for the Loggerheads
Tybee is home to a diverse menagerie of marine life and some of the most beloved creatures that inhabit the island are the loggerhead sea turtles. Every year from May 1 to Oct. 31, dozens of nesting sea turtles make their way to our beaches to have their eggs. Thousands of hatchlings emerge on our shores during nesting season, but unfortunately the vast majority don’t survive into adulthood. Loggerhead sea turtles are endangered, and although local turtle populations are recovering, they still face many threats to their survival. Five of the 7 species of loggerhead sea turtles can be found on our coast, and we as citizens must do what we can to support these turtles so that they can begin to thrive once more.
During nesting season, Tybee observes a Lights Out initiative to help protect nesting mothers and their hatchlings. Loggerheads rely on moonlight to guide them to shore and sea, and artificial lighting can deter turtles from their intended destination.
“The Lights Out initiative is that if you have beachfront property on Tybee Island — because we are a developed island, and we have tourists coming to our beaches and hanging out with people living on the island — you need to have your lights out by 9 p.m., making the beach nice and dark because sea turtles use the light of the moon to guide them,” said Allison Williford, program director at the Tybee Island Marine Science Center. “When mom is using the light of the moon, she’s coming up on the beach, finding a good spot to nest, and then the same for the hatchlings that are going out to the water looking for that moonlight on the water. And so if we have our white light out there, they’re going to get very disoriented and very confused.”
If lights on beachfront property must be kept on past 9 p.m., Williford recommends bulbs with a long wavelength, 560 nanometers or longer, which are dimmer and won’t compete with the moonlight.
“At 560, 580, you’re getting into a greenish, yellowish color. 580, 595 nanometers of length is like your yellows. And then really your oranges and your reds are like 595, 650. That’s really good, if they have a red light or an orange light. That’s really the ideal. But if you’re starting at 560 nanometers and keeping that wavelength longer, then you’re helping those animals out,” she said.
Also the types of bulbs used can make a difference.
“With incandescent bulbs, they’re going to have that right wavelength, but incandescent bulbs spread light out, they kind of go in every direction. But with an LED light, you’re able to focus it in one direction,” said Williford.
LED lights focused toward the ground are preferable to incandescent bulbs during nesting season. Beyond following the light guidance, there are other things community members and visitors can do to support the sea turtles.
“We like to keep the beach clean, flat and dark. So we’ve already talked about the dark and using the right type of lighting if you are going to have your lights on at night,” said Williford. “So clean, you always think of free of trash and marine debris and that’s a thousand percent true.”
Beachgoers should be mindful to collect any trash and pack up everything they brought to the beach, like chairs, tents and coolers, and remove it after their visit. Tybee doesn’t allow anything on the beach overnight, so be sure to leave only footprints behind. In addition to keeping the beach clean and dark, we should ensure that it’s level and flat.
“People love to dig holes in the sand when they’re on the beach . . . and we want people to be able to play and enjoy the beach. Obviously, it’s our favorite environment. We love to learn out on the beach and dig in the sand. But it’s important to fill your holes back in because a large enough hole, a 400-pound sea turtle mama can fall in and she’s not able to get out with those slippers and same for those little hatchlings as they’re making their way to the water. Things like sandcastles could get in their way. Sea turtles are really going to try and just go straight. They’re on a mission going where they’re going. So if you have big, tall towers built up in the sand and things built up in the sand. They’re not able to really get around that to go to the water. So clean, flat, and dark is what we like to say,” she said.
Williford also added that if you encounter a sea turtle or a nest on the beach, avoid approaching or disturbing it. You can snap photos from a distance, but leave the turtles and their nests alone. Furthermore, if you happen to catch a turtle on your line while fishing, you can take it to the marine science center where staff are trained to remove hooks. If we adhere to this guidance, we can do our part to help loggerheads in their recovery.
“That’s an important thing to just realize that their populations are still not where we want to be and as cute and sweet as they look, they’re still protected and so we need to keep our space and we always say keep wildlife wild and keep nature natural,” she said.
To learn more about Tybee’s loggerhead sea turtles and their nesting season, visit gadnr.org/sea-turtles.
