COCOA BEACH, Fla. – BP's oil didn't reach Cocoa Beach, but its dollars did, and they're helping shed less light on baby sea turtles by installing special LED lighting, as reported by Local 6 partner Florida Today.
The threatened and endangered sea turtles that nest in Cocoa Beach will reap big benefits this year as a result of the 2010 Deepwater Horizon blowout that left untold Gulf Coast turtles dead or caked in oil.
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As part of making amends, BP contributed $22 million for conservation efforts to bolster populations of sea turtles, fish, birds and other wildlife that depend on the Gulf of Mexico. About $100,000 of that went to projects that make lights on 14 coastal properties in Brevard County more turtle-friendly.
Although no oil hit, Brevard got the money because its beaches are considered vital to sea turtles.
The lighting projects were funded by the nonprofit National Fish and Wildlife Foundation from BP donations to the group's Recovered Oil Fund for Wildlife. BP created the fund from proceeds of oil recovered during the Deepwater Horizon blowout, which sent 200 million gallons into the Gulf.
The wildlife group consulted another nonprofit, the Gainesville-based Sea Turtle Conservancy, to see what projects would most benefit the turtles.
Sea turtles already face harsh odds: 1 in 1,000 hatchlings survives to adulthood.
Too much light reaching the beach can disorient sea turtle hatchlings, causing them to walk into the road and die, rather than into the ocean.
Hatchlings sprint toward the brightest light, usually the ocean's glare.
Beachside owners face steep fines and even jail time if they fail to comply with local lighting ordinances to protect sea turtle nesting. They must keep their lights from reaching the beach during sea turtle nesting season, May 1 through Oct. 31.
If inspectors walking the beach at night can see your lights shining over the dune, that's a violation.
The Florida Department of Environmental Protection can withhold state funding for beach renourishment projects in municipalities that fail to adopt or enforce such local lighting ordinances.
Baby turtles used to wander into the parking lot at Cocoa Beach Pier and get crushed under cars.
Robin Reiland, the city's code enforcement officer, noticed the pier's problem lights about a year ago during a night patrol.
"They were really extremely bright, so I went after them," Reiland said. But he wanted the pier in compliance, not fined, so he consulted Brevard County's natural resources management office, which told him of the available grants.
Bright, Christmas-like, white rope lights once lined the ceiling of the Oh Shucks Seafood Bar at the pier. Now cool, amber light-emitting diode rope lighting does. The pier is putting in more than 100 new amber LED light fixtures as well.But the lights will save money in the long-run because they use 70 percent less electricity.
The Sea Turtle Conservancy supplied the lights, and the pier paid for the labor.
Condominiums also have participated in the lighting project, including Oceanique in Indian Harbour Beach and La Playa East in Satellite Beach.