Seabird-friendly lighting installed at Maalaea parking lot
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The Maui News
New, energy-efficient lighting on shorter poles designed to help protect native seabirds and sea turtles has been installed at the parking lot managed by the Maalaea Triangle Association.
The association oversees the common areas shared by surrounding businesses, including Maui Ocean Center. The lighting project, which began in December 2021, was recently completed and follows a bill passed by the Maui County Council last year to create a new lighting standard for larger commercial parking lots in Maui County in hopes of preventing wildlife from becoming disoriented by bright lights. Bill 21 limits the amount of blue light emitted by outdoor lighting fixtures, among other requirements.
The new, energy-efficient lighting covers the entire 640-stall parking lot and includes 37 light poles, each 16 feet high, with downward-facing, fully shieled photovoltaic operated smart lights, according to a news release from the Maui Ocean Center on Friday. They replace the traditional 30-foot-high light poles installed 27 years ago with 408V bulbs and single-phase.
Reducing the height and orientation of the lights, as well as adding shields and blue light filters, helps pervents seabirds from getting disoriented and landing, which makes them vulnerable to predators and being hit by vehicles, the news release said. The filter "reduces blue light below 2 percent, which is the threshold set by the Maui County Council," said Lia Hunt, CEO of Honolulu-based Goldwings Supply Service Inc., which supplied the lighting developed by First Light Technologies. The lighting is installed without wires or trenching.
"By reducing the blue light content, you are having a positive impact on sea turtles and near-shore coral reef organisms, as well as the seabirds," said Jennifer Learned of the Maui Nui Seabird Recovery Project. "Newly hatched turtles are distracted by lights, and light at night can interfere with biological rhythms of the reef."
Learned explained that both adult seabirds and newly fledged chicks are distracted by lights and are drawn to lit areas, where they can circle a single light until they become exhausted and land or collide with structures.
"Parking lots are a special concern because the lighting reflecting off the pavement seems to be extra confusing for the birds, maybe appearing as water," Learned said.
The Maui Ocean Center also has more information at the Maui Nui Seabird Recovery Project's new educational kiosk in the park.
"We worked with Maui County Council to develop Bill 21, and we are proud to be part of the largest commercial lighting installation on Maui that not only complies with the bill's requirements, but actually exceeds them," said Tapani Vuori, general manager of the Maui Ocean Center.