ORANGE BEACH, Ala. – In 11 years of doing volunteer work to help loggerhead sea turtles, Mike Reynolds says this nesting season may be the most crucial yet.

Reynolds Is the director for the group Share the Beach, an organization that aids in turtle nesting and hatching and educates the public about the ancient species and the importance the Alabama Gulf Coast plays in their survival.

This year’s nesting turtles were the ones who were also nesting during the summer of 2010.

“Turtles nest every other year and this group is the oil spill turtles,” he said. “It’s very important for us to monitor this year’s nesting because they were the affected by the oil spill and we can see what effects the spill had on them.”

But, just like every year, lighting along the coast line is the most important factor is sea turtle survival.

“Street lights, condo lights, house lights, even a kitchen light shining out across the beach will attract a baby sea turtle to it and away from the water to its eventual death,” Reynolds said. “It’ll dehydrate or the fire ants will get it, the sand crabs will get it, cats, dogs, coyotes, foxes.

“They only have so much energy and that needs to go to getting from the nest and down to the water’s edge.”

It’s the main reason and the main premise on which Share the Beach was founded.

“If we didn’t have so much light, we wouldn’t have to have so much intervention and intrusion in a process that has been going on for millions of years,” Reynolds said. “We shouldn’t have to be doing this but we do and we’re making a difference.”

Before Share the Beach began monitoring of nesting and hatching, hundreds of baby sea turtles were wandering north and onto roadways. People began asking why so many of them were found dead on beach road.

Reynolds says the baby sea turtles are programmed to head toward the brightest lights.

“On a natural beach with no lighting around, the moonlight, the starlight sparkling off the water are the brightest things you see,” he said. “And the dunes will be dark. They go away from the dark and to the light, as faint as it is, that’s where they go.

“That’s why light, especially white light, is the biggest thing. It’s like a magnet.”

Share the Beach has developed several techniques to combat the light and bring about successful nesting and hatching. During last year’s nesting and hatching season more than 5,000 hatchlings made it to the Gulf through Share the Beach efforts.

Sea turtles lay eggs on the beaches from May 1 to August 31 and hatches can occur all the way through Oct. 31. The first step for Share the Beach is finding the nests.

Volunteers, more than 350 of them, will walk the beaches each morning looking for “crawls” and identify were nesting has occurred. Then the monitoring can begin leading up to eventual hatching.

Share the Beach volunteers will be on hand to shield the hatchlings from light and guide them to the Gulf.

Days before the hatching is expected, volunteers put a tarp around three sides of the nest to block light.

“So they start heading down the beach and when they get so far away from the tarp, well just the glow from the city will start them pulling back, just the glow of the city,” Reynolds said. “We’ve had that happen many times.”

Another technique volunteers use then comes into play.

“When it gets within a few days of hatching, we’ll dig a shallow trench from the nest down to the water’s edge,” Reynolds said. “And the trench is only four or five inches deep. If the turtle does try to turn and go towards the light, they hit the side of the trench.

“And, of course, we’re there with people stationed up and down the trench to make sure no turtles escape. We are able to redirect them if possible to get them to the point where they end up going into the water.”

During the years both Gulf Shores and Orange Beach have passed ordinances restricting lighting on beaches. This can include downward pointing lights covered on all sides and pathway lights lower to the ground.

“You either have to have a turtle friendly light or no lights at all,” Reynolds said. “You’ve got to close your curtains, you’ve got to put shades over your lights so the lighting is now getting minimized on the beach.”

Baldwin EMC quickly responds, Reynolds said, if there is a light near a nest. Volunteers call in the pole number and the electric cooperative turns that light off for about two weeks.

Even with all this in place, Reynolds said some turtles still insist on heading toward the glow away from the beach.

“Ultimately, we’re there and we have the understanding of the problem and if the turtles simply won’t go to the water, we can collect them and take them further down the beach to where it is dark, maybe down Fort Morgan Road where it is darker and release them down there,” he said. “We make sure the turtles are ultimately safe. If we have control over it, we’re going to protect them.”

When the baby turtles start swimming south, the volunteers’ job for that nest is complete.

“They are programmed to push into the waves,” Reynolds said.