ANNA MARIA ISLAND, Fla. — Fifty-five baby loggerhead sea turtles were found dead on a Florida road after experts say artificial light from nearby homes and businesses likely confused the hours-old hatchlings and sent them crawling away from the Gulf.
“It was just crushing to see so many dead turtles in the road,” Kristen Mazzarella, executive director of Anna Maria Island Turtle Watch and Shorebird Monitoring, told WWSB.
The hatchlings were found dead on Gulf Drive on Anna Maria Island on the night of Aug. 12.
Instead of heading toward the water after emerging from their nest, the turtles apparently crawled inland toward artificial light and ended up in the roadway.
The incident has renewed warnings for residents, businesses and vacationers along Florida’s Gulf Coast to keep beachfront areas dark during sea turtle nesting season.
Why lights can send baby turtles the wrong way
Newly hatched sea turtles normally use light as a natural navigational cue.
The brighter night sky reflecting over open water helps guide them from the sand toward the Gulf. Artificial lights visible from the beach can interfere with that instinct and send hatchlings in the opposite direction.
“But if there’s brightness in the area that should be dark, they might be heading towards that brightness instead,” Mazzarella told WWSB.
Anna Maria Island Turtle Watch said in a public message following the deaths that the hatchlings were only hours old when they crawled toward artificial light from homes and businesses and went “straight into the road.”
The group urged people on the island to help prevent the same thing from happening as hundreds of nests remain on the beach.
The problem has not been limited to this single group.
According to local reporting from the Anna Maria Island Sun, Turtle Watch had documented 143 disoriented hatchlings found dead as of Aug. 14. An estimated 1,534 to 3,550 hatchlings had become disoriented this season.
The organization also reported a 36% nest disorientation rate on the island so far this year, compared with 31% in 2025.
More than 250 nests were still waiting to hatch
The deaths are especially concerning because nesting season is far from finished.
Mazzarella told WWSB that more than 250 nests remained on the beach waiting to hatch.
That means more baby turtles could face the same danger if artificial light remains visible from nesting areas.
The Anna Maria Island Turtle Watch warns that lights shining onto nesting beaches can draw hatchlings away from the ocean, sharply reducing their chances of survival.
Residents and visitors are being asked to turn off unnecessary outdoor lights, close curtains or blinds at night and make sure lights inside homes and vacation rentals cannot be seen from the beach.
Property owners are also encouraged to use properly shielded turtle-friendly lighting.
Mazzarella said even the color of a supposedly turtle-safe light is not enough if the fixture still illuminates a wall or other surface and creates a bright area visible from the sand.
The Turtle Watch group is also reporting lighting concerns to local code enforcement officers and educating beachfront property owners, rental operators and visitors.
Anyone who finds a sea turtle hatchling going the wrong direction is urged not to simply ignore it. Anna Maria Island Turtle Watch maintains a 24-hour hotline at 941-301-8434 for reports involving disoriented, injured or dead sea turtles.
For Mazzarella and the volunteers who found the 55 hatchlings on Gulf Drive, the latest deaths were a stark example of how something as ordinary as a porch light, window or brightly lit building can become dangerous for wildlife just trying to reach the water.
“Make the beach safe for sea turtles so we can continue to have visitors come here to see them,” Mazzarella said.
