Turtle Season Runs 1 May to 31 October, and the Lights Rule Is Enforced

Sea turtle nesting season on Collier County beaches runs from 1 May to 31 October, and Marco Island's western-facing crescent is nesting habitat for its full length. Loggerheads are the main species here.

The rule that catches visitors out is about light. Under Marco's ordinance, lights visible from the beach must be turned off, shielded or otherwise modified after 9 p.m. throughout that window. That is not aimed solely at hotel façades. It covers balcony lights, uncovered windows in beachfront units, and anything on the sand.

The reason is specific rather than sentimental. A nesting female that encounters artificial light frequently abandons the crawl and returns to the water without laying, which is recorded as a false crawl. Hatchlings orient toward the brightest horizon, which for millions of years has been the open Gulf. A lit balcony reverses that, and the hatchlings go inland toward roads and storm drains instead.

Enforcement is real. Marco's ordinance provides for escalating penalties after an initial warning within a calendar year, rising through several hundred dollars into four figures for repeat offences.

What a visitor should actually do

• Keep balcony lights off after 9 p.m. from May through October, and draw curtains in beachfront rooms.
• No torches on the beach at night, and that includes phone screens and camera flashes.
• Fill in every hole you dig before leaving the beach and flatten sandcastles. A hatchling that drops into a hole at night does not climb out.
• Take beach furniture, umbrellas and toys off the sand overnight. Anything left out is an obstacle on a route that has to work in the dark.
• If you find a marked nest, leave the stakes and tape exactly where they are.
• If you come across a nesting turtle or a disoriented hatchling, keep back, keep quiet, keep lights off, and report it to Florida's wildlife authorities rather than intervening.

The same beach that hosts six miles of condominium balconies also hosts a nesting population, and the only reason both work is that people follow a rule they mostly never hear about until they are standing on it.