light on water attracts sea turtle hatchlings

What is it about?

We used new miniature acoustic transmitters and passive receiver arrays to track the dispersal of green turtle hatchlings as they moved through nearshore waters at Ningaloo, Western Australia in the presence and absence of artificial light on water. Artificial light on water was strongly attractive to turtle hatchlings and caused them to divert from their usual course and to linger around the light source, making them more vulnerable to predation.

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Why is it important?

Previous studies have found that artificial lighting on and near beaches is strongly attractive to hatchlings and interferes with their ability to find the sea after hatching and emerging from their nests, leading to death from exhaustion, or predation. Of great concern now is that artificial lighting in coastal environments now extends far beyond the shoreline. Ports, ships and industrial facilities such as oil platforms can increase the footprint of artificial light sources many kilometres into coastal seas, so that in some places turtle hatchlings must deal with the consequences over a significant part of their journey across the shelf to the open ocean. But up until now, the effect of artificial lighting on turtle hatchlings once they entered the sea was unknown, due to a lack of tracking devices small enough for these tiny animals.

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