JACKSONVILLE BEACH, Fla. – An environmental crisis is coming to light in Jacksonville Beach, according to one watchdog group.
Starting Wednesday night, hundreds of baby loggerhead turtles hatched, but beachgoers noticed they were heading for the road instead of the ocean.
Volunteers estimate up to 115 hatchlings went the wrong way after leaving their nest, which is located on the beach at 12th Avenue South. Some wound up on First Street, others in a beachfront pool.
Loggerhead turtles once were an endangered species at some point, but their numbers have swelled in recent years. Now they are considered a threatened species.
Beachgoers are lucky to catch a glimpse of a baby turtle in the surf. But Thursday, two construction workers building a condo near the beach found two turtles at their construction site.
"I was cutting lumber and I looked over and there's a little sea turtle walking across the street," recalled Stanley Peek, whose co-worker Michael Cook also found one.
Added Cook: "It looked dried out. It looked like it was about to die honestly. So I took it down to the beach and set it free."
Fortunately, the workers said, both turtles survived.
The night before, though, the situation was much more frantic. "It was truly heartbreaking," said Casey Jones, who runs the Florida Sea Turtle Watch group.
Jones and a team of volunteers helped with dozens of just hatched loggerhead turtles, which they found in several different spots.
Jones took pictures showing one walking on First Street, others in a drainage ditch and about ten of them in an oceanfront condo’s pool. He said another ten were about to enter the pool.
"We called out to the people that were on the balcony, they came out and unlocked the gate which was unreal," Jones said. "We recruited them to help."
It took about three hours to get more than 100 turtles out toward the ocean.
Jones blames "light pollution," or nearby bright lights that confuse the hatchlings. He showed News4Jax a picture of what he calls "illegal" lights on a condo, in the road and a builder’s trailer.
"It was so dark out here, there were no stars or moon, so guess what? They go the wrong way, they go to the brightest light every time," he said.
According to Florida wildlife officials, nesting season in the Atlantic runs from March 1 through October, it's illegal to disturb turtles or their nests, and bright lights should not point toward the beach.
Jones hopes the requirements and enforcement are stricter. He started a Change.org petition to change the rules in Jacksonville Beach. It has already racked up 126,000 signatures.
If you see a sea turtle in danger, you can call the Beaches Sea Turtle Patrol at 904-613-6081 or Florida Fish and Wildlife at #FWC or 1-888-404-FWCC (3922).