Turtle Friendly
Coastal lighting solution
Every year, millions of sea turtles appear on our coasts to mate and lay their eggs. Exterior lighting can scare them and keep them away from the coast, ultimately preventing them from reproducing. Increasingly, coastal territories have introduced environmental legislation to help reduce the human impact of lighting on local fauna in beach areas. A low lumen output combined with a long wavelength amber-colored LED light, such as NDR Lighting’s new Turtle Friendly Collection will allow sea turtles to safely access beaches for reproduction.
The Florida Fish and Wildlife Conservation Commission has outlined the following criteria as requirements for beachfront and coastal lighting: keep it low, keep it long and keep it shielded.
Keep it LOW
- Mount fixtures as low as possible. Low mounted fixtures provide more light directly on the ground where it is needed for human safety. This also reduces the potential of the light source or lamp from being directly visible.
- Use the lowest wattage or lumen output necessary for the needed purpose.
Keep it LONG
- Use long wavelength (greater than 560 nm AND absent wavelengths below 560 nm) light sources such as amber, orange, or red LEDs without the use of filters, gels, or lenses. Using long wavelength light sources is less disruptive to marine turtles than white or multi-colored lights.
Keep it SHIELDED
- The fixture must meet or exceed full cutoff. This is defined as no light emitting above a 90-degree plane.
- The fixture must be shielded so that the lamp or glowing lens is not directly visible.
NDR offers our Turtle Friendly Coastal Protection Lighting Collection of Razor and Ridge style LED downlights.
Our Turtle Friendly downlights offer LOW lumen outputs by using LONG wavelength Amber LEDs (>560nm) and are fully SHIELDED with a regressed lens from half an inch to one and a half inch deep providing a full cutoff at the 90 degree plane.
Should there be a need to install the fixtures at a higher floor level, NDR offers an optional SHIELD accessory sold separately that can be combined with the 4-inch or 6-inch Turtle Friendly Downlight Fixtures.
