{"id":374022,"date":"2026-08-17T21:54:10","date_gmt":"2026-08-17T21:54:10","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-fl\/374022\/"},"modified":"2026-08-17T21:54:10","modified_gmt":"2026-08-17T21:54:10","slug":"video-of-disoriented-turtle-hatchlings-crawling-to-hotel-lights-prompts-backlash-in-fort-lauderdale","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-fl\/374022\/","title":{"rendered":"Video of disoriented turtle hatchlings crawling to hotel lights prompts backlash in Fort Lauderdale"},"content":{"rendered":"<p class=\"c-paragraph\">FORT LAUDERDALE, Fla.  \u2014 In cell phone video taken by a sea turtle oversight protection volunteer and shared with Local 10 News, a turtle hatchling can be seen emerging from the sand and crawling \u2015 but not toward the ocean.<\/p>\n<p class=\"c-paragraph\"><a href=\"https:\/\/www.local10.com\/espanol\/2026\/08\/17\/video-de-crias-de-tortuga-desorientadas-que-avanzan-hacia-las-luces-de-hotel-genera-rechazo-en-fort-lauderdale\/\" target=\"_self\" rel=\"nofollow noopener\" title=\"https:\/\/www.local10.com\/espanol\/2026\/08\/17\/video-de-crias-de-tortuga-desorientadas-que-avanzan-hacia-las-luces-de-hotel-genera-rechazo-en-fort-lauderdale\/\">Leer en espa\u00f1ol<\/a><\/p>\n<p class=\"c-paragraph\">The disoriented turtle is seen flapping its flippers and slowly moving toward the unnatural lights of a Fort Lauderdale Beach resort.<\/p>\n<p class=\"c-paragraph\">\u201cWhen a sea turtle comes out of the sand, the first thing it needs to go to is to the ocean,\u201d said John Payne with Sea Turtle Oversight Protection, or STOP. \u201cTheir main focus and their main goal is to come out of the sand and go directly to the brightest light.\u201d<\/p>\n<p class=\"c-paragraph\">Payne says the video was taken Friday night in front of Beach House Fort Lauderdale, a Hilton resort 505 N. Fort Lauderdale Beach Blvd., when the whole nest of 64 tiny, endangered turtles went straight for the hotel lights.<\/p>\n<p class=\"c-paragraph\">In this case, STOP staff were able to move all 64 disoriented turtles to the ocean\u2019s edge.<\/p>\n<p class=\"c-paragraph\">STOP says they reported those same lights back in July for violating city code, but the lights went right back on. <\/p>\n<p class=\"c-paragraph\">Violators of the city ordinance can face up to a $500 per day fine.<\/p>\n<p class=\"c-paragraph\">Fort Lauderdale\u2019s city code has a whole section on sea turtles, part of which reads in part, \u201cLights illuminating any buildings or associated grounds for decorative or recreational purposes shall be shielded or screened such that they are not visible from the beach at nighttime during nesting season.\u201d<\/p>\n<p class=\"c-paragraph\">Turtle nesting season runs from March through October. <\/p>\n<p class=\"c-paragraph\">Amid a wave of backlash on Beach House Hilton\u2019s social media accounts, STOP says the resort reached out to them.<\/p>\n<p class=\"c-paragraph\">\u201cWell, the good news is Beach House did reach out and they\u2019re doing the right thing,\u201d said Payne. \u201cThey\u2019re working with us to collaborate on ways that we can make their specific case even better.\u201d<\/p>\n<p class=\"c-paragraph\">According to STOP, only 35% of Fort Lauderdale businesses are in compliance with sea turtle safe lighting. <\/p>\n<p class=\"c-paragraph\">They encourage businesses that want to become compliant to reach out to them at <a href=\"https:\/\/SeaturtleOP.org\" target=\"_self\" rel=\"nofollow noopener\" title=\"https:\/\/SeaturtleOP.org\">their website<\/a>.<\/p>\n<p class=\"c-paragraph\">Local 10 News also reached out to Beach House Hilton for a response to the situation but have not heard back as of the time of this story\u2019s publication. <\/p>\n<p class=\"c-paragraph b-article-body__copyright\">Copyright 2026 by WPLG Local10.com &#8211; All rights reserved.<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"FORT LAUDERDALE, Fla. \u2014 In cell phone video taken by a sea turtle oversight protection volunteer and shared&hellip;\n","protected":false},"author":2,"featured_media":374023,"comment_status":"","ping_status":"","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[17],"tags":[249,251,250],"class_list":["post-374022","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","has-post-thumbnail","category-fort-lauderdale","tag-fort-lauderdale","tag-fort-lauderdale-headlines","tag-fort-lauderdale-news"],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-fl\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/374022","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-fl\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-fl\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-fl\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/2"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-fl\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=374022"}],"version-history":[{"count":0,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-fl\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/374022\/revisions"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-fl\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media\/374023"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-fl\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=374022"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-fl\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=374022"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-fl\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=374022"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}