Turtle-Friendly Lighting
Our turtle-friendly lights are designed to protect sea turtles and other wildlife. Each of our fixtures emits amber light at a wavelength of 560nm or above to minimize the ecological impact on coastal wildlife while still providing enough illumination for nighttime use. These fixtures are durable and weather-resistant, making them built to withstand various coastal weather conditions.
What are Turtle-Friendly Lights?
Turtle-friendly lighting, also known as turtle-safe lighting, helps minimize the harmful effects that white artificial light has on sea turtles’ natural instincts. Female sea turtles lay their eggs at night to protect themselves from predators and use the moonlight to lead them back into the water. Sea turtle hatchlings typically emerge from their nests at night as well, and they instinctively use the moonlight’s reflection on the water to guide them toward the sea into safety. However, sea turtles can confuse white light from streets and beachfront properties with this reflection, causing them to crawl inland. To reduce any potential disorientation, turtle-friendly lights emit a specific wavelength of light that sea turtles and other wildlife can differentiate from natural moonlight.
Looking for Dark Sky Friendly lighting specifically?
Our line of Dark Sky friendly luminaires provide directed lighting while minimizing light pollution. We have a large selection across many types of outdoor lighting for area, pathway, and building exteriors.
Qualities of Turtle-Friendly Lights
According to the Florida Fish and Wildlife Conservation Commission (FWC), all exterior turtle-friendly lights should meet the following guidelines in order to keep turtles and other animals safe. For beachfront properties in states other than Florida, be sure to check with local regulations to ensure you adhere to all lighting ordinances.
Keep It Low
All exterior turtle-safe lighting should be mounted as close to the ground as possible and must emit the lowest lumen value that is required for its intended purpose. Doing this will eliminate tall and overly bright light fixtures that sea turtles and coastal wildlife could confuse with natural moonlight.
Keep It Long
All turtle-friendly lights must emit light with long wavelengths of 560 nm or higher. This will make them appear amber, orange, or red. Please note that true amber light is more effective than phosphor-converted lenses since the wavelength of most phosphor-converted lights registers below 560 nm.
Keep It Shielded
All turtle-safe lights must be directed completely downward or sufficiently covered to direct light beams toward the ground. This ensures that lighting will be less visible from the beach to eliminate unnecessary light pollution and prevent sea turtles from mistaking artificial light for moonlight.
Who Should Use Turtle-Safe Lights?
Around 90% of sea turtle nesting occurs in Florida, with the rest taking place in the other Gulf Coast states, West Coast states, and Hawaii. Along these coasts, beachfront businesses, restaurants, homes, pathways, parking lots, and buildings should utilize turtle-safe lights to reduce disorientation and confusion in nesting sea turtles and sea turtle hatchlings. Full cutoff wall packs and sconces are suitable for tall beachfront apartments, condos, and other buildings where light must be shielded downward. Bollard lights with louvered reflectors are best installed lining piers, boardwalks, plazas, and pathways near the coast.
Turtle-Safe Lighting Wavelength
A light spectral distribution chart visually represents the intensity of light at different wavelengths across the electromagnetic spectrum. On a spectral chart, white light usually has a peak wavelength of around 450-460 nanometers (nm). On the other hand, turtle and wildlife-friendly lights emit a long wavelength of light at 560nm and above, which appears amber or red. The difference in color between these two wavelength ranges allows sea turtles to distinguish between artificial turtle-safe lighting and natural moonlight.
Advantages of LED Turtle-Safe Fixtures
Unlike certain lighting types, like metal halides, fluorescents, and halogen lamps, LEDs can emit a wide range of colors and wavelengths, including those required for turtle-safe lighting. LED chips emitting a wavelength of 560nm and above are more effective than white lights using colored lenses. This is why the FWC lists red, orange, and amber LEDs as an acceptable lighting type for turtle-friendly lights.
Choosing LED fixtures for your beachfront lighting comes with many advantages as well. LEDs use significantly less energy than traditional lighting solutions, so you can save money on operating costs over time. Our LED fixtures have an L70 lifetime of up to 50,000 hours, ensuring your lighting will last for years to come. They also have integrated heat sinks to assist in proper thermal management to maintain the optimal operating temperature of the LEDs and prolong their lifetime.
Types of Turtle-Friendly Lighting
Turtle-Friendly Parking Lot Lights
Given in their name, turtle-friendly parking lot lights are a great solution for illuminating coastal area commercial properties and residential complexes. These lights provide a Type III-M downward light distribution, but half or full glare shields can be installed to further eliminate light spread. Optional photocells are also available to power lights on or off based on the available natural light.
Turtle-Friendly Bollards
Also known as pathway lights, bollard lights feature louvered reflectors to guide light downwards. With a 600-610 nm wavelength, these fixtures are often found along boardwalks or piers along beachfronts. Additional glare shields can be installed on bollard lights to cover 180° of the beam.
Turtle-Friendly Wall Packs
Wildlife-friendly wall packs are constructed to be fully cutoff, ensuring their Type III light distribution is focused downwards. These fixtures are commonly installed along the perimeters of beachfront properties. Optional glare shields are available to prevent the light from spreading onto the beach.
Turtle-Friendly Wall Sconce
Our turtle-friendly wall sconces are a great choice for both residential and commercial properties in coastal areas. These fixtures have a sleek, modern design, elevating the look of your building. Install wall sconces along your home's doorway, beachfront condos, or docks.
Turtle-Friendly Canopy Lights
Canopy lights can be installed in parking garages or under pavilions near coastal areas or wildlife reserves. These fixtures feature integrated glare shields that eliminate uplight and create a 97° beam angle. Our turtle-friendly canopy lights are compatible with certain motion sensors to ensure lights only power on when activity is detected and reduce energy efficiency.
Turtle-Friendly Strip Lights
Weatherproof turtle-friendly strip lights provide easy installation along piers, residential properties, or parks to protect wildlife. The strips are built with a silicone coating to withstand UV rays or erosion. The customizability of these strip lights allows them to be cut or connected to fit your outdoor application.
From Our Knowledge Base
Light Pollution Solutions to Help Wildlife: Turtle-Friendly Lights
Turtle-friendly lights are a great solution to combat the harmful effects of light pollution on wildlife. Learn how to make your lighting wildlife safe here.
Turtle-Friendly Lighting: Make Your Beachfront Property Wildlife Safe
Beachfront properties must use turtle-friendly lights to minimize the harmful effects of artificial light on sea turtles and wildlife. Learn more here!
Frequently Asked Questions
What Are Wildlife-Friendly Lights, and What Classifies a Fixture As ‘Widlife-Friendly’?
Wildlife-friendly lighting refers to a style of LED lighting constructed to minimally impact nocturnal wildlife. Traditional artificial lighting can mimic natural sunlight, distrupting habitats and behaviors. The Florida Fish and Wildlife Conservation Commission has a Wildlife Lighting Program, which lists the criteria for a fixture to be considered ‘wildlife-friendly.’ These requirements are keep it low, keep it long, and keep it shielded.
- LOW: Lights installed lower to the ground with the lowest wattage needed will minimize light spread and excessive brightness.
- LONG: Fixtures should have a long wavelength of at least 560 nm to emit an amber color.
- SHIELDED: Install glare shields and ensure the fixtures are fully cutoff to reduce light spread.
How Are Wildlife Animals Affected By Artificial Lighting?
One animal greatly affected by artifical lighting the most are sea turtles. Female turtles go on the beach for nesting, they rely on the darkness to hide them from predators, but artificial light can expose them and put them at risk. Sea turtle hatchlings use the moonlight and stars to navigate back to the water, and artificial lighting can disorient them, causing exhaustion, or physical harm. Intense artificial light can also affect animals hunting and sleeping habits. However, our amber LED wildlife lighting will not be mistaken for moonlight, reducing these issues.
Why Should I Use Turtle-Friendly Lighting in Coastal Areas?
Sea turtles rely on the moonlight for navigation. Sea turtles go on the beach to lay eggs, and when the hatchlings are ready to go to the water, they use the moonlight to lead them. However, disorientation from street lights, building lights, or other fixtures can confuse the hatchlings, causing them to go in the wrong direction. This issue doesn’t just occur for sea turtles; other animals in coastal areas, such as fish, benefit from turtle-friendly lighting. Artificial light from poorly constructed light fixtures can reflect onto water, causing fish to become disoriented and making it hard to hunt.
Our fixtures have increased durability, are manufactured with aluminum housing, and have at least an IP65 rating. This ensures these lights will last longer in harsher weather conditions than other fixtures and withstand dust ingress and rusting due to saltwater.
What Color Should My Wildlife-Friendly Lights Be?
Wildlife-friendly lighting does not follow the usual way of selecting lights. When shopping, wavelength is the best indicator for proper wildlife-friendly lighting. The wavelength should be at least 560 nanometers (nm) to ensure it emits an amber or red light, which is less visible to wildlife.
When Should I Consider Installing Wildlife-Friendly Lighting For My Business?
All businesses near the ocean, national parks, nature reserves, marinas, and other areas near wildlife habitats should should check with the local government to see if there are requirements in place fore wildlife-friendly lighting. This can include owners of retail stores, restaurants, hotels, resorts, and more.
How Does Turtle-Friendly Lighting Relate to Light Pollution?
The design of our turtle-friendly lights ensures that not only will they protect wildlife, but they will also reduce light pollution. These lights have a fully cutoff design, creating no uplight and lowering light pollution. Multiple of our products can be installed with glare shields. Additionally, the amber color emitted reduces excessive brightness and glare.
Are Wildlife-Friendly Lights Energy-Efficient Options?
LEDs are the top energy-efficient solution for wildlife lighting. They require less energy to operate, and we have fixtures that can be installed with photocells or motion sensors to only power on when necessary, increasing energy efficiency and cutting down electricity costs.
