Have you seen a “broken” streetlight marked with green duct tape? During sea turtle nesting season, we intentionally turn off streetlights that are close to active sea turtle nests. Turning off lights is critical to giving baby sea turtles the best chance to safely reach the ocean when they hatch.
As the Volusia County Environmental Management Division updates us on nest locations, our Public Works crews go out at night to see which lights are visible from each nest location. That’s how we decide which streetlights to turn off temporarily. We mark the posts with green duct tape to track the locations, and we turn the lights back on when the nest hatches.
The Sea Turtle Nest Dashboard shows Volusia beaches have 736 nests so far this season, including 43 in the Shores.
Thank you for understanding and for supporting these beautiful sea creatures as they take their first steps on our beaches!
Original source can be found here.