The Beach With No Traffic Light Is Out-Nesting Boca Raton This Season

"Our existing ordinance is pathetic." That's how Highland Beach's own building official, Jeff Remas, described the town's beachfront lighting rules when commissioners sat down to rewrite them. It's an odd thing to hear a town official say about a law still on the books today. It's an even odder thing to hear about the town whose beach, according to Highland Beach's own website, produces more sea turtle nests every year than Boca Raton's or Delray Beach's.

Both things are true, and they're connected. This is a record year for sea turtles along this stretch of coast, and the town with the least going on above the sand may be doing the most below it.

A Three-Mile Beach Punching Above Its Size

Highland Beach has no traffic light. It has roughly three miles of oceanfront wedged between two much bigger neighbors, Delray Beach to the north and Boca Raton to the south, both of which have hotel corridors, commercial strips, and beach parks drawing far more foot traffic. Boca Raton alone monitors a five-mile stretch of sand, two miles longer than Highland Beach's entire coastline.

By the town's own account, that smaller stretch still out-nests both bigger neighbors most years. It's the kind of claim that sounds like civic boosterism until you look at what's actually happening on the sand this season.

What 2026 Looks Like Up and Down the Coast

Florida's sea turtles have had an unusually strong year statewide, and the numbers from this stretch of coast back that up:

• Boca Raton's Gumbo Limbo Nature Center documented 1,077 loggerhead nests along its five-mile beach as of late August 2026, breaking a record of 1,075 nests that had stood since 1990.
• The same team logged 41 leatherback nests by late May, already ahead of the city's old leatherback record of 33 set in 2012. By early July that count had grown to 43.
• Sea Turtle Adventures, which patrols a three-mile stretch through Gulf Stream, Briny Breezes, and southern Ocean Ridge, had counted 213 nests by late May, including 43 leatherback nests against a previous record of just 19.
• Joanne Ryan, who oversees Highland Beach's own sea turtle monitoring, told The Coastal Star in early June that Highland Beach was on pace for a record year of its own in both loggerheads and leatherbacks.

None of this is a coincidence of good weather. Sea turtles don't decide where to nest at random. They return to the beach where they hatched, and they don't reach nesting age for two to three decades. The turtles crawling ashore in Highland Beach this month hatched sometime between the late 1990s and mid-2000s. Whatever protections existed on this beach back then are the reason they're here now, not anything the town did last year.

The Policy Nobody Notices Until It's Gone

That's why the "pathetic ordinance" comment matters. Before the rewrite, the town's rule amounted to telling property owners not to illuminate the beach, without saying how bright is too bright or which fixtures count. Remas wasn't arguing against turtle protection when he called it pathetic. He was arguing that a vague rule doesn't actually protect anything. Today, the town's sea turtle program page points residents to a specific dusk-to-dawn lighting requirement, Ordinance Number 554, as the operative rule for beachfront property during nesting season.

Town Manager Marshall Labadie framed the rewrite as giving residents "a clear road map to turtle lighting standards," and Commissioner John Shoemaker put it even more plainly, saying there was no reason the town shouldn't convert to more turtle-friendly fixtures across the board. Shoemaker had walked the beach himself and found lights on the west side of A1A bright enough to pull hatchlings away from the water instead of toward it.

The point isn't that Highland Beach has some secret advantage. It's a town without a traffic light, without a commercial strip along the beach, and with a lighting rule its own staff pushed to make stricter rather than looser. Fewer lights, fewer distractions, more turtles. It's a fairly direct line.

Who's Actually Watching the Beach

None of this happens on its own. Highland Beach's sea turtle program runs on volunteers, and it always has. Joanne Ryan took over as the town's permit holder for the Florida Fish and Wildlife Conservation Commission from Barbara James, who had held that role for 17 years. Ryan patrols three days a week from March through October, logging nests before her workday starts.

"It's a bit of a challenge. You need to get up early, rain or shine, but so rewarding once you do."

That's Ryan, describing a routine that hasn't changed much in over a decade. In 2025, she reported that green turtle nests in Highland Beach were already more than triple what they'd been the year before by the end of July, a jump she said the team had expected given the broader trend along this coast. It's the kind of detail that never makes it into a tourism brochure but tells you more about the beach than almost anything else could.

What's Left of the Season

Nesting season runs through October 31, which means Highland Beach still has about six weeks of hatchlings making their way to the water. For anyone who lives here, that means a few things worth keeping in mind on evening walks:

• Beachfront lights should stay off from dusk to dawn through the end of the month, per the town's existing ordinance.
• Flashlights and phone lights on the beach at night can send hatchlings in the wrong direction. Better to leave the phone in a pocket.
• Furniture, holes, and sandcastles left behind at the end of the day can block a hatchling's path to the water. Clearing the beach before dark helps more than most people realize.
• A sick, injured, or dead turtle should be reported to the FWC's Wildlife Alert line at 888-404-3922, not handled directly.

None of this is complicated. It's also the reason a three-mile beach with no traffic light keeps outperforming beaches many times its size.

The Quiet Beach Keeps Its Advantage

There's a version of this story that treats Highland Beach's turtle numbers as a charming footnote, the kind of thing you mention to guests and move past. The numbers this season suggest something closer to a pattern. A beach that stayed dark when it didn't have to, that kept its footprint small when growth was available elsewhere, is now watching that restraint pay off in a way that took twenty-some years to show up.

It's a good reminder that some of what makes a place work isn't visible on any given night. It shows up decades later, on a beach that never turned its lights on in the first place.

If you're already part of this community and want to talk about anything happening in it, from a season like this one to what's next for your street or your home, Tanya Ajay is always glad to talk. Schedule a Private Consultation whenever the timing is right for you.