Scubaism

The Edgewater Beach Hotel escaped with only a fraction of the harshest possible fine Thursday after illegal lights at the hotel confused sea turtle hatchlings trying to find their way to the Gulf of Mexico.

The code board fined the hotel on Gulf Shore Boulevard North $500 for the early Tuesday morning incident. The board also gave the hotel until Sept. 6 to correct sea turtle lighting laws violations or face $250 a day in fines.

Hotel workers scooped as many as 70 of the baby turtles, a threatened species under the federal Endangered Species Act, from the hotel’s pool and returned them to the Gulf before turtle monitors were notified of the problem, code enforcers said. Many more were never found. Sea turtle monitors counted 168 hatched eggs in the nest.

When baby sea turtles emerge from their nest, the reflection of the night sky on the Gulf shows the turtles the way to safety. Bright lights on the beach, though, send the turtle the wrong way and make them vulnerable to predators. The turtles also waste valuable energy they need to make it to the Gulf stream, which carries them to their food source in the Sargasso Sea.

Naples Natural Resources Manager Mike Bauer was quick to criticize the $500 fine as being too light. “I find this extremely disheartening and a lack of appreciation for our wonderful environment in Southwest Florida,’’ Bauer said.