Turtle friendly lighting at Palm Beach Surf Club!

“Loggerhead sea turtles are a vulnerable species, so when we discovered a nest near the Club we knew the temperature in the sand was too cold for them to incubate. We took immediate action with the TurtleWatch team to relocate the nest to Sea World,” said Alison Hilliard, General Manager of Palm Beach Surf Club.

Once hatched, the baby turtles were released back into their nesting area near the Palm Beach Surf Club so they could waddle off into the ocean.

“It turns out that little hatchlings can confuse our bright lights for the moon and they headed to our Club, instead of the ocean. So we stuck our neck out and decided to flip the switch!” said Ms Hilliard.

In collaboration with the lighting gurus at Raylinc and the turtle-saving superstars at TurtleWatch, gone are the bright, blinding floodlights that turned our deck into a turtle disco. We’ve swapped the lights out for eco-friendly, amber wavelength lights that won’t mess with our shelled friends’ sense of direction.

No more turtle tangos on the sand—just smooth sailing toward the ocean.

Here’s the scoop:

• LUX Values Reduced: We’ve dropped our lighting from a bright 31 to a cool 7. Basically, the turtle equivalent of turning off your annoying neighbor’s high beams!
• Orb Lights Out: Six orb lights on the deck? Gone! Now it's just the right mood lighting for turtles to find the ocean without a hitch.

Want to learn more? Join us in a TurtleWatch celebration as we welcome the 2024/2025 TurtleWatch season!

We will be joined by Watergum and Sea World Foundation to share and touch on exciting new opportunities unfolding this season!

The event schedule will be as follows;
Palm Beach Surf Club
Friday November 1st 5:30pm - 7:00pm

• Wildlife friendly lighting
• What’s on this season
• Mingles, drinks and nibbles

We hope you see you on the day and well into the 2024/2025 nesting season!

TurtleWatch is delivered by Watergum and Sea World Foundation and funded by City of Gold Coast.