Due to COVID-19 lockdown, less human activities and light pollution cause nature to restore its balance. In Samui Island, Thailand, nine turtle nests have been reported between February and May. We use satellite images to prove the hypothesis that the less light pollution, the more chance of turtles would come to the shore and lay their eggs. Thus, this reduced human traffic on the island is good for the environment and provided us with a chance to calculate the suitable light level for turtle nesting which is also not too dark for local human residents.
We saw the news about the record number of sea turtles coming back to the shore during the lockdown and it was clear that this was due to lower human activities. Hence, we decided to survey the causes for the turtles to decide whether to go to the shore to nest. The main factor here is light pollution. Consequently, we used the satellite data from NASA for nighttime light levels and use Python to convert this information to images. We also create a code to determine which area was notably brighter than the others. We hope that we can use our results to figure out the brightness threshold that is not too disruptive for the turtles during night time when they nest. From this pilot work on just a single island, we also hope to expand this project to a larger scale to help our endangered sea turtle populations.
https://docs.google.com/presentation/d/1SwWgCo98TTDO0-uIxTx-b3D_lHtYglkwK0Suxazfm5s/edit?usp=sharing
From NASA