No, man and sea turtles do not enjoy the same cuisine, however 60 newly hatched sea turtles did in fact end up walking straight into an Italian restaurant, recently. This however stems not from the fact that baby sea turtles are admirers of Italian cuisine, but rather from the fact that newly hatched sea turtles are drawn to light.

According to a conservation worker, 60 newly hatched turtles ended up under the tables of customers of an Italian beachside restaurant, last Monday. The poor confused turtles had to be rescued after scaring diners, said Antonio Colucci, who came to serve as a ‘rescuer’ of the unfortunate group.

The reason for this comes not from an inherent sense of bad direction from baby turtles, but rather from the fact that baby sea turtles depend on the reflection of the moon on the water of ocean, as a sort of direction marker as they journey into the ocean. Female sea turtle, give birth to their young on the shore, months later baby sea turtles break out of their eggs and crawl toward the bright light of the moon. Thus, the bright lights of the restaurant threw the poor turtles off track as they tried to make their ritual journey into the ocean.

According to Mr. Colucci, who works for the World Wide Fund for Nature (WWF), “they saw the artificial lights and took the wrong route”. The unfortunate group of sea turtles hatched on the southern Italian coast in the region of Calabria, after being rescued they were released into the sea.

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To avoid such unfortunate circumstances, individuals and companies, who live along any sort of coastal shore should purchase sea turtle friendly lighting. What an unfortunate way for baby sea turtles to lose their lives. Please be responsible and considerate and protect baby sea turtle by purchasing sea turtle friendly lighting. Starry Night Lights is a huge supporter and provider of sea turtle friendly lighting fixtures, please feel free to look at our sea turtle friendly lighting fixtures when choosing your best lighting.

Here’s a picture I took recently while walking on the beach in Siesta Key, Florida. Note that this was taken in late July, the middle of sea turtle nesting season. This is a real no-no. The exterior AND interior lights from these condos are pumping large quantities of light onto a sea turtle nesting beach. This dramatically reduces the survival chances of any hatchlings this beach would normally produce. Given that these creatures are protected under the endangered species act, these guys should know better.

Ok… I’ll take a step back and provide some background… then you’ll see what this picture is driving me crazy. Sea turtles have been around for hundreds of millions of years, going back to the dinosaurs. They have evolved and thrived throughout history. Now, in the span of decades, they are on the brink of extinction. The combination of human hunting (now outlawed), habitat destruction from coastal development (still going on full steam ahead) and light pollution (also still going on… though this is being addressed in a fairly diligent manner throughout the state of Florida)… has them on the ropes. Here’s an interesting fact: All species of sea turtle native to florida waters are now listed as either threatened or endangered. This is a tragedy. Another interesting fact from the Florida Fish & Wildlife Conservation Commission: Light pollution is at the heart of the decline of sea turtles.

How can this be you may be wondering? How can something as common as outdoor lighting have such devastating consequences? Let’s take a look. Sea turtles nest on the same beaches year after year. If a mother sea turtle returns to lay her eggs on a light polluted beach, one of two things may happen. She may simply decide that the location is no longer an acceptable place to lay her eggs… thereby taking a healthy breading female out of action. She may also (against her better judgement) choose to come ashore and lay her eggs. About 60 days later (under cover of darkness) the hatchlings will emerge from the nest she dug for them. Using instincts honed through the ages, baby sea turtles know to head for the brightest horizon. This has typically been the ocean and safety. Nowadays, with the advent of outdoor lighting, it may be the new condo complex… located in the opposite direction. It could be a condo complex like the one pictured above. Now we have a very bad situation. Sea turtle hatchlings only have some much energy. This energy is supposed to get them out to see where they can begin feeding. If they waste their energy traveling inland, their odds of survival drop dramatically. In many cases, these poor little hatchlings won’t survive day one of their lives. Over 80% can die on heavily light polluted beaches. They’ll get run over by cars, eaten by predators, perhaps bake in their own shells under the hot Florida sun. Add in the fact that only 1 or 2 out of 100 normally make it to reproductive age and you can see that losing 80% in one day is simply devastating.

Much can be done… and is being done… but these creatures are in jeopardy… and may not survive if we don’t make a concerted effort to reduce our impact on their world. Many Florida counties have strict turtle lighting codes. These prohibit ANY outdoor lighting from being visible on the beach. PERIOD. If any light from a home is visible on the beach… the home is in violation of the outdoor lighting codes. Home or business owners will be cited. Lighting in sensitive sea turtle nesting areas requires thought and diligence. Simply follow the basic sea turtle friendly lighting guidelines and you’ll be doing your part to protect these wonderful creatures.

• Keep It Shielded - Also a dark sky principle - Turtle friendly outdoor lighting directs all light down to the ground
• Keep It Long - Use only long wavelength turtle friendly light bulbs
• Keep It Low - Lower mounting heights are less likely to invade critical turtle nesting areas

Global warming has had a very significant impact on our modern world. Many politicians are taking very needed steps to reduce and lessen the negative impacts that global warming has had on our environment. We have heard about how global warming has affected climate changes, certain disasters, but one aspect which has not been discussed very much is its effect on wildlife. According to the United Nation’s Intergovernmental Panel on Climate Change (IPCC), 20-30% of all wildlife species, animal and plant species included, could have an increased chance of extinction if the average global temperature continues to increase. In fact if the temperature continues to rise and exceeds 1.5 to 2.5 degrees Celsius. This could potientially lead to a possible 60% loss in species in certain specific areas of the world.

Global warming and its effects have had significant impacts on the lives and habitats of:

Sea Turtles- Climate changes have had a very negative affect on the sex of the baby sea turtles. During the period of incubation, warmer water leads to female young, while colder water leads to male young. Thus climate change has played a significant role in disturbing the balance of female/male sea turtles.

Polar Bears- Global warming, has caused much the artic habitat that polar bears depend on to melt. Thus, polar bears have lost much of their habitat in the arctic because of severe melting as temperatures rise.

Penguins- The severe melting of sea ice in the arctic has had a significant impact on the decline of several animal species that reside there, one of which is the penguin. This is because the loss of habitat has caused the penguins’ main food source, krill, to have a large population decline.

Ignoring the facts and effects of global warming, will have a greater impact than we may expect. Outside of climate change, and weather changes- global warming will have a dramatic impact on wildlife. By taking the appropriate steps in dealing with global warming, we will be able to improve the temperature and the lives of precious wildlife and their habitats. We at Starry Night Lights support slowing global warming and improving its negative effects on our world. Be sure to consider all the aspects of our environment which are influenced by global warming, when choosing environmentally friendly products. This is an area that we can help.

The night sky friendly outdoor lights offered by Starry Night Lights, put all the light they produce on the ground, allowing you to significantly reduce the wattage used and still have the same amount of light on the ground. If you install motion sensors, you can cut the energy consumed by over 95%. Given the amount of outdoor lighting in use, this is a significant amount of energy saved… and global warming gasses not emitted. Energy Star light fixtures are another example. These fixtures have been certified to consume far less energy than typical lights… in many cases upwards of 80% less energy consumed. Please keep this in mind… the choices you make do have an effect on the world around you.

Global warming is doing more than just changing the climate of our world, it is also taking a harmful toll on our wildlife. Many species of animals and plants may face extinction if the threat of global warming does not lessen. Pollution and loss of habitat have already caused severe consequences for wildlife and unfortunately it seems that threats on wildlife will only increase in the future. This sad fate will certainly be so if humans do not make attempts to improve global warming problems.

One of the many species that is suffering heavily from the consequences of global warming is bears, especially grizzly and polar bears. Regrettably, the areas where both grizzlies and polar bears live have been reduced greatly. Polar bears especially have lost much of their habitat in the arctic as temperatures rise and have caused severe melting.

The severe melting of sea ice in the arctic has also affected the many other animals that live there as well. Penguins have also experienced a population decline, this is because of loss of habitat and the lessening amount of krill, which is their main food source. In any case, both polar bears and penguins desperately need sea ice for practically all their activities, which include; mating, bearing young, sleeping and so forth.

Sea turtles have also been affected by global warming. There six species of sea turtles that live off the coasts of the United States, all six of these species are either endangered or threatened. The climate changes have even affected the sex of the baby sea turtles. During the period of incubation, warmer water leads to female young, while colder water leads to male young. Sea turtles are also suffering from the effects of industrialization, as many businesses have taken over their ‘egg-laying’ areas along the shore. This has lead to the death of many baby turtles.
 

Birds are also being affected by global warming, especially those species that typically live close to rivers, and lakes. The increase in temperature has caused the water level of these areas to drop and in some places have even dry up. This is bad for both the breeding and feeding of these bird species.

By becoming more environmentally conscious and by reducing energy consumption, we can help reduce global warming. This way we will help the diverse wildlife that can be found all over our planet to survive, while at the same time protecting our planet.
 

Often time, climate change and global warming are only discussed in reference to humans and their world; however these factors are also having very negative effects on wildlife. In fact, about one-fourth of mammals are considered to be ‘threatened’, while the numbers are only slightly less in the case of birds, where more than a thousand different species are also considered to be threatened. This is a very severe and crucial situation, especially because thousands of species have not even been discovered or documented as of today! Unfortunately, we may lose some very precious creatures to our large consumption habits and to our lack of concern for our ecosystem.

Loss of habitat, rising temperatures and pollution, are playing the biggest factors in the reduction of wildlife. Sadly, our wildlife has been attempting to keep up with these changes by adjusting and evolving, however sometimes these adjustments do not get made in time and frequently many species’ numbers have become significantly less. The loss in numbers has also been affected by:

-          the consumer lifestyle

-          increase in waste and pollutants

-          growing urban development

These effects are not far from home, for those who live in the United States. In fact, our coasts have met with a large decrease in the population of sea turtles that live along our shores. Unfortunately as beaches become more urbanized, there is less room for turtles to lay their eggs and a less of a chance that the baby turtles will get to make it to the ocean. This is mostly because baby turtles depend on the light of the moon to guide them to the ocean, and with all the lights that shine onto the beach, the turtles frequently lose their way and end up never making it. Regrettably this could be reversed if people paid a little more care to ensure that their lights faced down, and were placed at a location that could not threaten nesting turtles.

There are many other species that are suffering from unfortunate fates, similar to sea turtles. For example, polar bears are losing much of their habitat as temperatures rise and cause their habitat to ‘melt’ and shrink. Also, many bird species have had population decreases because of growing urbanization which has made it difficult for them to bear young successfully.

We at Starry Night Lights, encourage you to take these facts into consideration and to take whatever steps possible to improve this circumstance, in order to protect our planet and its many treasures.

For those living in coastal areas of the south, its time to start thinking about making your exterior lighting turtle friendly. The reason for this is that waterfront homes share the beach with nesting sea turtles. Unfortunately, this hasn’t been an equal sharing and the sea turtles have suffered significantly. According to the Florida Fish & Wildlife Conservation Commission (FFWCC), all species of sea turtles native to Florida waters are either threatened or endangered. Beachside lighting is a major contributing factor. It turns out that sea turtles simply can’t deal with the round the clock day time we’ve created with all of our exterior lights. Fear not. There is a simple solution. Make sure that all of your homes exterior lights are turtle friendly. Not quite sure what turtle friendly is? Keep reading and we’ll make this clear.
If you’re familiar with dark sky lighting requirements, you’re halfway there. Turtle Friendly Lighting goes beyond “dark sky” lighting requirements in that it also speaks to the type of light produced by your fixture as well as the way your fixture is mounted. Turtle Friendly Lighting has 3 principles:
Keep It Shielded - Also a dark sky principle - All light is directed down to the ground
Keep It Long - Use only long wavelength “turtle friendly” light bulbs
Keep It Low - Lower mounting heights are less likely to invade critical sea turtle nesting areas
Shielded fixtures, also known by the technical term of ‘full cutoff fixtures’, aim all the light they produce down to the ground where people are walking and driving. They have solid tops and sides that prevent light from shining in places it doesn’t belong. The combination of full cutoff optics and turtle friendly light bulbs has been proven to be the least disruptive outdoor lighting solution for sensitive sea turtle nesting areas.
Turtle Safe light bulbs use a special mono-chromatic coating. These red bulbs, limit the spectrum of the light that is emitted to a very narrow band of the visible spectrum. You’ve seen the way a prism splits light into all the colors of the rainbow. White light contains all these colors together. This is pretty much what a ’standard’ incandescent light bulb produces. Turtle Safe coatings block much of this and only allows light at the very long (red) end of the spectrum to be emitted. This long wavelength light has been proven in numerous studies to have less of an impact on nesting sea turtles than other types of light. Turtle Safe bulbs will have this coating applied directly to the bulb.
However, there are situations where this is not practical. In some situations, it is not possible or desirable to coat the bulbs. To address these situations, you can also make use of a Turtle Safe Mask. This is essentially a turtle safe coating applied to a plastic film. This film can then be affixed to the glass of existing fixtures… or otherwise used to limit the output of a bulb or fixture to only the Turtle Safe wavelengths.
Note: This only works well with compact fluorescent bulbs. Incandescents, metal halides, etc produce a light that is not conducive to working with this coating.
Also Note: As these filters limit the light being output to a very narrow band of the visible spectrum… they don’t put out as many lumens as a comparable bulb.
For planning purposes, expect these to put out roughly 1/3 the number of lumens as a non-filtered bulb. If you’re looking for a certain # of lumens, you will need to use higher wattage bulbs to achieve the desired number of lumens.

As you can see, this is pretty simple stuff. With just a little effort, we can make changes that will allow sea turtles to continue to thrive alongside us… as they have for millions of years.

Everyone knows that any outdoor light is usually surrounded by an assortment of insects. No one really stops to think about the effect the lights have on these insects they just know that insects are attracted to light. The fact is that it is more than just an attraction, it is an obsession. Insects will fly around from light to light congregating with other insects and are eventually blinded, exhausted or overheated to death. Studies show that the average street lamp kills at least 150 insects each night it is lit. Multiply that by 365 and you get 54,750 insects killed by one lamp in a year. A city block has at least 4 usually more in the range of 8 street lamps. That means that one city block is knocking out 219,000 to 438,000 insects per year. Now picture how many street lamps reside in New York City, or the United States of America. The number of insects being killed by street lamps gets to an unfathomable number when you factor in all the street lamps in the world which probably in itself is in the millions. You are probably thinking the less bugs the better, but the birds, bats, reptiles and frogs have different thoughts on their minds.

Sparrows and a number of song birds rely on insects for protein. With the loss of billions of insects every year to light pollution, the hunt for food is becoming more difficult for these birds. Frogs, Lizards and bats also rely on insects for meals and shortages in food could be an issue in the near future. The abundance of artificial lighting is more directly related to the death of thousands of birds than their starvation due to lack of insects. Most birds embark on biannual journeys to warmer climates and back to their habitat of originality. In order to navigate this journey they use the magnetic force of earth with their internal compasses along with the constellations and the moon as an atlas. Usually these birds travel across massive areas of land and thousands of miles of ocean, using the reflection of the stars and moon to guide their way. In the past, this reflection created the brightest luminosity compared to the land and the birds would easily be able to find their way to their destination. Now the moonlight has some competition with the coastline lined with brightly lit cities creating a glow in the sky that is brighter than the natural illumination of the heavens.

According to the Fatal Light Awareness Program (FLAP), at least 100 million birds are killed annually by manmade structures. These deaths are a combination of disorientation due to artificial lighting, bright lights and towers with blinking beacons. A large majority of the deaths are caused from collisions with either other birds or buildings, towers and other manmade structures due to confusion from too many or too bright lights. A couple of significant mass killings of birds have occurred in the United States over the past fifty years. Cause of death: LIGHTS. On October 7, 1954, 50,000 birds followed a bright light beam lit by the Warner Robins Air Force Base in Georgia only to hit dead into the ground. More Recently in 1998, nearly 10,000 birds slammed into radio transmission towers in Kansas. Although these may have been freak accidents, it only proves the theory that the over usage of lights is killing our birds.

Most commonly associated with light pollution is the endangered sea turtles of Florida. Six species of turtles are known to live in the Atlantic and five of these are endangered. Sea turtle eggs are buried in the beach by their mothers and hidden for a period of time. When they hatch, the hatchlings are supposed to crawl towards the water by looking for the brightest horizon. Like the birds, this used to be the reflection of moonlight and stars on the water or the reflection of the sun on the water. However, in the past couple decades, Florida has urbanized their coastline with six distinct sky glows on the eastern coast. Instead of heading for the water, the hatchlings are disoriented and heading for the cities and die from either exhaustion, being hit by a car or other various deaths. The sea turtles of Florida are not expected to be in existence in fifty years.

As you can see, light pollution is not just an inconvenience to those who are intrigued by the night sky, but also to those who believe that the animal kingdom is sacred. The animal kingdom is in danger of being eliminated because of humankind’s excessive need to light up our world. There is better use for our energy and money and certainly a better use for a dark night than a bright one. The benefits of dark-sky friendly lighting clearly outweigh the costs of light pollution, and the world should start paying attention how flipping the switch is affecting our earth.

Starry Night Lights is proud to announce its participation in this years Sea Turtle Friendly Outdoor Lighting Workshop being hosted by the Mote Marine Laboratory in Sarasota, Florida. The event will take place on Saturday morning, 4/21 and will bring outdoor lighting to the attention of area residents and builders. Improper outdoor lighting is having a devastating effect on sea turtles worldwide, with the Florida Fish and Wildlife Conservation Commission listing it among the top threats to these endangered creatures.

Bright lights along beaches (and even many miles inland) can cause a number of problems for sea turtles. In one scenario, a nesting mother will simply swim on by and not nest. This takes a healthy, female out of the breeding pool. In another scenario, she heads up onto a light polluted beach and lays her eggs (against her better judgement). When the hatchlings crawl from their nest under cover of darkness, they know instinctively to head for the brightest horizon. This would historically be the ocean lit by stars and moonlight. Under some modern conditions, the brightest horizon could be lit by the new condo complex in the opposite direction of the safety of the ocean. Disoriented hatchlings heading in the wrong direction end up as road kill, eaten by predators, roasted in their shells by the hot sun, etc. In many cases, over half of the hatchlings on light polluted beaches never make it through the first day of their lives. When you consider that only one or two actually make it long enough to reproduce, losing such large numbers in one day is devastating to turtle populations. This is one reason that all species of sea turtles native to Florida waters are either listed as threatened or endangered.

Starry Night Lights, in attending this workshop, will continue its industry leading efforts to promote intelligent outdoor lighting for the masses. We believe that outdoor lighting can be used in such a manner as to allow for human safety at night without destroying the night time environment for other creatures that inhabit our planet. It is our responsibility to ensure that all species can continue to thrive and using light at night intelligently is one way to do so.

Cocoa Beach, FL (July 4, 2006) — The Cocoa Beach Holiday Inn and the Brevard County Natural Resources Management Office will be holding a sea turtle friendly outdoor lighting workshop on Saturday morning (7/15) from 9:00am until 1:00pm

Residents within 3 blocks of the beach, beachside builders & electrical contractors, beachside property managers and the general public are all invited to learn about the devastating effects that improper outdoor lighting (light pollution) has on sea turtle populations. Sea Turtle populations are in decline throughout the United States. All species that inhabit Florida waters are either threatened or endangered. Light pollution is a major contributing factor according to the Florida Fish and Wildlife Conservation Commission. Attendees at the sea turtle friendly outdoor lighting workshop will learn how to safely light properties near sensitive coastal areas using turtle friendly outdoor lighting products that have a minimal impact on surrounding wildlife. The Turtle Friendly Outdoor Lighting Workshop will be presented by State of Florida Fish & Wildlife Conservation Commission (FWC) lighting experts Dean Gallagher & Meghan Conti and U.S. Fish & Wildlife (FWS) lighting expert Lorna Patrick. Turtle friendly outdoor lighting specialists, Starry Night Lights founder and president, Anthony Arrigo will be on-hand to discuss his industry leading collection of turtle friendly outdoor lighting solutions.

Florida Fish & Wildlife Conservation Commission, www.myfwc.com/seaturtle, manages fish and wildlife resources for their long-term well-being and the benefit of people.

Starry Night Lights, www.StarryNightLights.com, is the leading provider of ordinance compliant, sea turtle friendly outdoor lighting products.

Call (321) 633-2016 ext. 52431 or email for more information.

Starry Night Lights is proud to announce a significant expansion of our turtle friendly outdoor lighting solutions. Working with the Florida Fish & Wildlife Conservation Commission, we’ve combined the largest selection of friendly outdoor lights with “monochromatic” turtle safe lights to offer a number of solutions to communities that border turtle nesting areas. We have bollards, wall packs and pole mounted solutions for municipalities as well as a rapidly growing collection of wall mounted fixtures for homeowners and condo associations. The combination of full cutoff fixtures and monochromatic lights has been found to be least disruptive to turtles. “It’s the best combination of outdoor lighting technologies currently available. We’ve got a number of offerings and we plan to greatly expand them in the coming weeks”, said Anthony Arrigo, Founder and President of Starry Night Lights.