A Canadian lighting products company has developed a new line of outdoor lights specifically to be wildlife- friendly. The fixtures have been certified by the Florida Fish and Wildlife Conservation Commission to be "turtle safe" lighting for use at properties near sensitive sea turtle nesting habitat.

Many sea turtles' lifecycles revolve around returning each year to nest on the stretch of coastline where they hatched. This includes rare loggerhead, leatherback and green turtles. Over 100 million years of evolution have developed baby sea turtles' instincts to immediately crawl toward the lightest horizon: that is toward the ocean and away from the dark dunes.

But today, instead of heading directly into the relative safety of the sea, hatchlings often become disoriented by manmade lighting and go toward the bright lights of homes, buildings and roadways. This can lead to them wandering in circles on the sand, exposing them to a much higher risk of dying from dehydration, exhaustion or predation.

Besides this threat to their survival, bright outdoor lights onshore may discourage females from ever coming ashore to nest.

To protect against either of these from occurring, turtle lighting ordinances along the Southeast's highly developed coastline require the use of long-wavelength yellow or red lighting since studies have shown that certain light wavelengths have minimal effect on them.

Dasal Architectural Lighting of Vancouver, B.C. has developed two new outdoor LED down lights that are deemed "turtle safe" lighting for properties near sensitive sea turtle nesting habitat.

The round Aqua Amber LED and square Nemo Amber LED trims and associated housings have been certified by the Florida Fish and Wildlife Conservation Commission's Wildlife Friendly Lighting Program.

In developing the new small-aperture LED down lights, Dasal teamed up with channel partner SESCO Lighting Inc. SESCO works with numerous wildlife conservation organizations and has participated in hundreds of successful "turtle lighting" projects.

"Ninety percent of sea turtle nesting occurs on continental US beaches and all of these species are either threatened or endangered," said Karen Shudes, sea turtle lighting specialist at the Sea Turtle Conservancy. "We appreciate those manufacturers who work collaboratively to give property owners more options and produce the right lighting for use near critical turtle nesting sites."