Low-pressure Sodium Lighting and Sea Turtles

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Christian B. Luginbuhl
U.S. Naval Observatory Flagstaff Station
PO Box 1149
Flagstaff AZ 86002
cluginbuhl@nofs.navy.mil

Version 1.0
28 April 2004

This page contains brief excerpts from the Florida Marine Research Institute Technical Report TR2. The entire document is linked here (PDF, 2.2 MB).

Page vi: Low-pressure sodium-vapor luminaires are pure yellow sources that make good substitutes for more
disruptive lighting near sea turtle nesting beaches.

Page 3: Both green turtles and loggerheads showed a significant tendency to avoid stretches of beach lighted with white mercury-vapor luminaires (Figures 1 and 2). However, any effect of yellow low-pressure sodium-vapor luminaires on loggerhead or green turtle nesting could not be detected.

Page 23: The spectral properties of low-pressure sodium-vapor (LPS) lighting make this type of lamp the least disruptive to sea turtles among commonly used, commercially available light sources.

Page 38: Low-pressure sodium vapor (LPS) lighting (minimally disruptive).—LPS is by far the least disruptive light source among those commonly used. LPS sources emit a light that is pure (monochromatic) yellow, a region of the spectrum that is only weakly attractive or even aversive (at higher intensities for loggerheads only) to orienting hatchlings.

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