The Need and Status of Sea Turtle Conservation and Survey of Associated Computer Vision Advances

TL;DR

This paper reviews the importance of sea turtle conservation, examines the threats they face, and explores how recent computer vision and machine learning advances can aid in their detection and protection.

Contribution

It provides an overview of conservation challenges and analyzes recent computer vision techniques that enhance sea turtle detection and monitoring efforts.

Findings

Computer vision aids in efficient sea turtle detection.

Machine learning improves accuracy of turtle recognition.

Conservation efforts benefit from technological advancements.

Abstract

For over hundreds of millions of years, sea turtles and their ancestors have swum in the vast expanses of the ocean. They have undergone a number of evolutionary changes, leading to speciation and sub-speciation. However, in the past few decades, some of the most notable forces driving the genetic variance and population decline have been global warming and anthropogenic impact ranging from large-scale poaching, collecting turtle eggs for food, besides dumping trash including plastic waste into the ocean. This leads to severe detrimental effects in the sea turtle population, driving them to extinction. This research focusses on the forces causing the decline in sea turtle population, the necessity for the global conservation efforts along with its successes and failures, followed by an in-depth analysis of the modern advances in detection and recognition of sea turtles, involving Machine Learning and Computer Vision systems, aiding the conservation efforts.