The Terrifying Truth: How To Blindly Kill A Turtle

Beach Walks

Every year, I take a trip with my family to Eastern Florida, where I can relax on my grandparents’ beachfront property. I usually try to take nightly beach walks during my stay. I take my red flashlight as to not disrupt my night vision, and scan the shore for wildlife. Typically, I see crabs, seaweed, and birds. However, during the hot summer months of turtle nesting season, I sometimes find tiny hatchlings or nesting mothers.

The tiny hatchlings race to the ocean after crawling out from beneath the sand. They focus on light reflecting off the ocean waves to guide them in their first breaths to sea. However, as I observed during my stay this summer, the baby turtles have been confronted with an impossible challenge.

Light

Dozens upon dozens of new hatchlings raced towards the beachfront residential buildings instead of the ocean. The white lights from the residents’ apartments disorient the babies, and they blindly follow it. According to the Sea Turtle Conservancy, there are roughly 100 thousand hatchlings challenged with disorientation due to light each year in Florida. The residents’ have a 10 p.m. curfew, and cannot have lights on later than that. However, I noticed that not every resident complies to these rules. Selfishly, this leads to hundreds of confused hatchlings.

Watching hundreds of baby turtles go the wrong way and knowing I can’t help them was crushing. I hope most of them eventually figure out how to get to the ocean. That said, disorientation can mess up a baby’s “imprinting”, which is how they know where to lay eggs in the future.

Furthermore, plenty of people whip out their phone flashlights upon witnessing a nest hatching. I’ve seen people quite literally shove their phones in the babies’ faces. The residents of Florida should be the most weary of beach rules. Tourists should study the laws and policies before traveling. People need to pay more attention to the consequences of their actions.

The majority of turtle species in Florida are endangered or threatened. With constant light pollution and hatchling disorientation, populations will continue to drop. People must stop selfishly ignoring policies and rules for their own comfort. We must be more understanding of our imprint on the environment. Collectively, we must educate ourselves and realize that we share the planet. We were not here first, but if we keep this up, we might be here last.

For the turtles, for ourselves, I implore you to recognize your effect on nature, and question how you could be better for it.

Sources: (Sea Turtle Conservancy)