FORT MYERS BEACH, Fla. — It’s no secret that we’re in the middle of sea turtle nesting season in Southwest Florida. 

On Fort Myers Beach, there are abnormally fewer nests than usual. Despite that, a record-breaking number of sea turtles are being disoriented. 

A sea turtle disorientation is when a light other than the moon attracts a turtle, leading them in any other direction but towards the Gulf of Mexico. 

“We have so few nests this year and we can’t get them to the Gulf,” said Cindy Johnson with Turtle Time, a group that’s permitted by the State of Florida to monitor the nesting turtles on Fort Myers Beach.

Each and every night, volunteers head out to check on all of the nests. Their work should be tough to see. However, as of late, there’s been so much light on the island it’s not hard to spot them. 

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“Do you notice how dark it is out in the Gulf compared to the South,” Johnson said. 

Light high up in the sky is called sky glow. It acts like a lantern in the night sky. 

The light towards the south of Fort Myers Beach is actually from Bonita Springs and Naples, more than 30 miles away. 

“A sky glow up to 30 miles will attract the turtles,” Johnson said.

It’s exactly what’s been happening this year. A record-breaking 18 disorientations have been recorded. Some hatchlings are even crawling all the way to Estero Boulevard where they’ve been found run over by vehicles. 

Gage: “Is that an alarming number?” 

Cindy: “I would say so and I don’t think anyone’s here.”

Yet many homes and businesses on the island have some sort of light visible from the beach. 

“Just the interior lights are lighting up this area,” Johnson said while looking at one home lit up. 

Gage: “It’s not just one light. It’s one, two, three, four, five different lights up here. 

Cindy: “Yup. And this nest didn’t disorient. They didn’t have lights on that night.”   

However, a street light, clearly visible from the beach, comes on every night like clockwork. 

“Without a doubt, they’d all go that way,” Johnson said. 

So how can you know which lights are safe for turtles and which aren’t? 

The easiest way is by using a light filter. The film in the filters removes the lights that are safe for turtles, leaving only white lights, which attract turtles. 

Safe turtle lights are those that have 560 nanometers of wavelength or more. 

“Somewhere around 50 warning letters,” said Chadd Chustz, the environmental project manager with the Town of Fort Myers Beach. 

That’s how many code violation warning letters the town has issued. That’s on top of the phone calls and emails he’s sent as well.

“There’s a lot more across-the-street violations for people that never really had to deal with this,” Chustz said. 

That includes the town’s streetlight, which in theory, is violating their own ordinance. 

“I’m being told that FPL is going to be installing amber lights island-wide,” he said.

That’s the best answer to the problem. You don’t need to turn off your lights, just turn them into being turtle friendly.