Abstract
Currently, sea turtles in Miami-Dade County still disorient at high rates due to artificial lighting from beachfront properties and bright city skyglow. Multiple lighting management strategies have been implemented across the state of Florida including local lighting ordinances, beachfront lighting inspections and educational programming. Creating a framework for a lighting-focused program for a sea turtle monitoring program could be beneficial in addressing this conservation threat in the community. The framework made for the Miami-Dade Sea Turtle Conservation Program had two components: lighting surveys and educational presentation with surveys administered pre-presentation and post-presentation. 16 field surveys of 305 beachfront properties were conducted observing south, east, and north sides of buildings. External and internal light sources were ranked along with overall priority ranking of buildings. Severity scoring of beachfront properties were be reported on a scale of 0-5 indicating remediation importance. 4, 30–45-minute educational presentations and 1, 3-hour virtual educational workshop was held, and 44 social surveys were administered to voluntary participants. Questions from social surveys asked participants their views on environmentalism related to sea turtles and sea turtle habitat, how participants view artificial light as a conservation issue and if participants want to see a change regarding artificial light in their community or would like to get involved themselves. Results from the lighting surveys indicated parks were significantly different from other city municipals when it came to overall lighting severity and external lighting severity. Window light was the most common lighting violation, documented for 82.2% of beachfront properties. Results from the educational presentations reveled levels of understanding and advocacy for sea turtle conservation increased after presentations. A highlighted concern for sea turtle lighting was safety with 7% of participants strongly agreeing. Increased use of lighting surveys can help pinpoint areas on concern and issue violations sooner to beachfront properties. Educational programming reveled different community needs and local context for sea turtle lighting instillation. The creation and continued use a tailored conservation management plan can work in conjunction with existing local lighting ordinances to address artificial light in Miami-Dade County.