Alert to young turtles’ safety, Sandbridge condo goes red

Jul 21, 2023

By SARA PERKINS

The Virginian-Pilot

VIRGINIA BEACH – The new six-story condominium in Sandbridge looms over the smaller houses around it, but no one would mistake its candy-colored walls for the moon.

Yet biologists at Back Bay National Wildlife Refuge were concerned that newborn loggerhead turtles might do just that.

Young turtles make their first journey down the beach to the ocean by "keying on" bright white lights. They may think they are headed toward the moon reflecting off the water, said John Gallegos, a biologist at the refuge.

When bright lights distract them, they can end up disoriented and off course, lowering their chance of survival.

So in 2004 when developers proposed a condo complex on Sandbridge, just north of the refuge, Back Bay staff requested an unorthodox lighting scheme to help hatching turtles on the refuge's nearby beaches.

The 249-unit complex, called The Sanctuary at False Cape, welcomed its first residents last month. They arrived to find red covers on all outdoor lighting on the condo's ocean side. Beach-level lights are covered with red plastic, and balconies are lit by red-clad wall fixtures.

Turtles do not respond to red lights.

New owners are moving into The Sanctuary every day, developer Rick Gregor said. The larger Phase II section is a steel frame now, but half of its units have been sold. Completion is expected in 2007.

Condos facing the ocean are the most popular with buyers. The other side of the building looks across the street at Back Bay.

The lights were surprising on a first walk-through, said new owner Tina Sinnen, the Virginia Beach Circuit Court clerk. They have become a family joke – creating a "red-light district," Sinnen said.

Another condo buyer, Brian Mason, chief operating officer at Atlantic Bay Mortgage Group, said the color "makes a softer feel in the evening … a little bit more quaint, more cozy."

Every year, Back Bay refuge staff move loggerhead nests to protect them from beachgoers and predators. After loggerhead females lay their eggs, they swim off, leaving nests vulnerable to digging predators and beachgoers.

When the eggs hatch, the sea turtles are returned to their home beach for their first run to the sea. After about 15 years of life at sea, females who survive from local nests may return to lay eggs on the same beach.

Last year, volunteers stood guard over seven nests in Virginia Beach. So far, only one loggerhead nest has appeared , but Gallegos expects a few more by the end of the summer.

Staff members dig up nests and move them to buried cages farther back in the dunes for their 60-day gestation period. Volunteers nest-sit through the night near hatching day to ensure that someone is present to load the turtles into coolers with wet sand and release them on the beach.

This protection system increases the percentage of eggs that hatch successfully to about 90 percent, Gallegos said.

As for the red lights at the condo, "the developers have been very gracious with us and agreed to reduce the impact on the hatchlings," he said.

Reach Sara Perkins at (757)222-5132 or [email protected].

Sign up for email newsletters