Artificial light pollution on nesting beaches disorients sea turtle hatchlings, causing mass mortality from misdirection away from the ocean.
Artificial light pollution represents a human-caused welfare harm to sea turtle hatchlings at scale: thousands of small turtles that successfully hatch and emerge face disorientation from artificial light that sends them toward roads and buildings rather than the ocean. The individual experience of a disoriented hatchling — struggling across hot pavement, exposed to predation, dehydrating without reaching the ocean — represents genuine suffering that is almost entirely preventable. Sea turtle-friendly lighting is effective, widely available, and increasingly mandated in nesting areas. The welfare solution is behavioral and legislative: switching to long-wavelength amber lighting and turning off unnecessary coastal lights during nesting season directly saves thousands of lives annually.