Sea turtle hatchlings getting lost on their way to the ocean. Scientists call it “disorientation,” but that’s just a nice name for a tragedy.
When these tiny turtles go the wrong way, most of them die. It’s a preventable loss, and nowhere in Southwest Florida is the problem worse than Fort Myers Beach. Even the town officials admit it. They’re scrambling to change things.
Maybe you’ve seen them: rows of baby sea turtles, each about the size of a silver dollar, frantically flapping their flippers to reach the water. It’s an incredible sight, and it’s why people feel such affection for loggerheads and green turtles nesting here. Sadly, many never make it.
Experts at the Sea Turtle Conservancy, says over 100,000 hatchlings die like this every year. The exact number? Who knows, as it’s too chaotic to count. But it’s clear: most of these deaths are because the turtles chase the wrong light. They should head toward the moonlight reflecting off the Gulf, but they get drawn toward artificial lights from hotels, homes, and stores lining the beach. They exhaust themselves wandering far from the water. The next morning, their tiny bodies litter the sand, or worse, they’re squashed by cars on roads that cut across the shoreline…