There are often environmental conflicts between coastal development and the health and well being of native wildlife. In Barbados, this is particularly true with endangered sea turtles which nest on our beaches.
“Turtle Safe Lighting” refers to the technique of the complete “black out” of coastal developments and not allowing any light trespass on to the beach. This approach is not always desirable for coastal developers.
Therefore, the approach of “Turtle Friendly Lighting” was coined. This technique is to use design and technology to shield light emissions from the beach and to use approved amber LED light bulbs.
Talma Mill Studios was fortunate enough to work on a coastal public access at “Batts Rock” which included a pedestrian walkways and coastal landscaping. There was a safety requirement to have the walkway illuminated. Our approach was to use “Turtle Friendly Lighting”. We employed low coastal vegetation to screen walkway lighting from the beach and used The Beachside Lighting MB7 dockside bollard with a 10 watt LED amber bulb. This fixture concealed the light source from view and had an acceptable amber light bulb light source.
With good design it is possible to allow development and nature to co-exist.
