Un Pueblo VaZIHo

Bright lights along the waterfront confuse the hatching turtles! They are programmed to head towards the star and moonlight bouncing off the ocean to guide them to the sea. The bright lights wreck havoc on their internal instincts! Saludos, Roberto y suerte con las Problemas en paradise!

¡Hola, Eric! ¡Un fuerte abrazo!

Yes, we've found hatchings in the street. Something we never saw before these bright lights were installed. They also appear to disorient and shy the nesting turtles themselves. A normal nesting more or less comes straight up from the water to a nice dry spot high up the beach and far from the waterline, then doubles back towards the water. This year more than ever I'm seeing tracks that wander randomly over great lengths of the beach. A little wandering is normal, but some of these run quite a long ways parallel to the water for no apparent reason. If there were dogs harassing them we'd normally hear them barking. Haven't heard any dogs on the beach at night lately.

The Sea Turtle Conservancy has quite a bit of useful info about beachfront lighting and how it affects sea turtles.
https://conserveturtles.org/