Florida hosts the largest loggerhead sea turtle nesting population in the Atlantic, with approximately 50,000-100,000 nests annually on beaches from Melbourne to Miami. Artificial lighting disorients hatchlings seeking the ocean, causing mass mortality on some beaches without mitigation.
Hatchlings disoriented by artificial lighting crawl into roads, car parks, and coastal developments where they die from dehydration, predation, or vehicle strikes. Nests exposed to excessive sand temperatures from climate warming produce predominantly female hatchlings — skewing sex ratios in ways that may compromise future population viability. Nest flooding from storm surge drowns developing embryos over days. Volunteer monitoring programs that protect and monitor nests, install sea turtle-friendly lighting, and rescue disoriented hatchlings provide direct welfare interventions at scale. Research into shading interventions to cool overheated nests is advancing as a climate adaptation measure.