Along Florida's beaches, and especially in our community of Daytona Beach, intrusive lighting and its effect on nesting sea turtles and their hatchlings has become an important issue. Our research into this topic led us to the discovery that no conclusive data has been compiled to determine the magnitude of the lighting problem. Furthermore, the exact levels of light considered safe for turtles have not been agreed upon. These problems are partly due to the fact that no adequate technology exists that is capable of measuring problem lighting. These lights attract turtle hatchlings away from the ocean, many times leading them to their deaths. It has been our goal as a team to research possible ways to deal with this problem. Light meter technology seemed to offer promise in solving the issue by allowing precise measurement of problem lighting. This has led to the selection of Environment Monitoring Sensors as our technical application. |