This temperature cue prompts them to emerge primarily at night, although some have emerged in late afternoon or early morning. They have an inborn tendency to move in the brightest direction. On a beach, the brightest direction is most often the open view of the night sky over, and reflected by, the gulf. Hatchlings also tend to move away from darkly silhouetted objects such as dunes and vegetation. My neighbors' lights are visible from the beach.
Sea turtles benefit from any reduction of artificial lighting on the nesting beach.
As lighting is reduced, hatchlings will have a better chance of reaching the sea. Unfortunately, no simple measure of light intensity can reveal whether a light source is a problem. . . Any light that is visible from the beach is likely to cause problems. Apart from being overly expensive and complicated, lighting the gulf to draw hatchlings offshore probably would create more problems, such as interfering with hatchling dispersal and making the babies more vulnerable to predatory fish. Most of the essential lighting that remains can be easily shielded so that the light performs its intended function without reaching the beach.