During the 2005 nesting season, the public street lights in San Miguel, Guanacaste, were modified to benefit the populations of sea turtles that nest in the area.

Light contamination on beaches as a result of human development negatively affects sea turtle nesting. Adult sea turtles avoid nesting in illuminated areas and therefore lose significant nesting habitat where bright lights line the beach.  Light contamination also disorients turtle hatchlings that emerge from their nests at night because they are attracted towards the lights.  Instead of heading towards the sea, the newly hatched turtles head inland, making themselves more vulnerable to death from overexertion, dehydration, and depredation and to being run over by vehicles.  The disorientation of adults and hatchlings during these critical stages of their lifecycle further worsens the already critical situation facing sea turtles.  

San Miguel, Guanacaste, is a small coastal community where hundreds of sea turtles nest each year and where many organizations have been conducting sea turtle monitoring and conservation projects. The ecological integrity of San Miguel as a sea turtle nesting beach was recently threatened by light contamination as a result of public street lamps, which were unnecessarily illuminating the nesting beach during the night.

The community of San Miguel, which is dedicated to protecting the environment and sea turtles and believes that local development can be accomplished in a sustainable manner, solicited the Costa Rican Electrical Institute (ICE) to install shields on the public street lamps that would direct light toward the ground and not toward the beach and in this way minimize the problem of the lights.

ICE responded swiftly and on the November 23, 2005 installed shields on 22 lamps along the entire main street of San Miguel parallel to the beach.

At 8:30 p.m. on December 7, 2005, just two weeks after the shields were installed, a leatherback sea turtle nested at San Miguel.  Quickly, various members of the community gathered around to watch the amazing visitor.  Pacific leatherback turtles, which have decreased 95% over the last 20 years, are considered the most endangered population of sea turtles in the world.

On February 8, 2006, representatives of the community of San Miguel and employees of ICE met to get feedback from the community regarding the shields, which resulted in complete support of their installation.

“The town is a bit darker, but it’s just a matter of getting accustomed, I remember when there wasn’t any light at all,” said San Miguel community member Dominga Chávez.  “We have to try to live in harmony with nature, we can’t invade and change everything, we have to remember that we are not the only inhabitants on this planet.”

“We hope that the measures we have adopted with the public street lamps continue to receive the support they have gotten from San Miguel locals and that other coastal communities follow their lead,” added ICE employee Berny Alvarado, based out of San Francisco de Coyote.  “We all can contribute to the conservation of sea turtles by turning off or covering lights that illuminate beaches and thus keep our beaches dark.”

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