While it may be the nesting season, It still is amazing to see around 64.000 green sea turtles swimming around the Great Barrier Reef, captured by Australian researchers using aerial photography. Every year, thousands of these sea creatures make their way to Raine Island, the largest green turtle rookery in the world. The island lies some 620 km northwest of Cairns in Queensland, Australia, and is a vegetation rich coral cay. These female turtles migrate by the thousands, and as far as thousands of kilometers away, just to lay their eggs at the island. And the drone footage recently captured could be the largest turtle swarm ever recorded.
The green turtle is the only herbivorous marine turtle, and one of the biggest a well. It gets its name from the deep green color of its cartilage and fat. Raine Island has protected shores, ideal for nesting of the elegant marine species, according to WWF-Australia. But while the numbers of green turtles nesting are incredible, sadly, they are still considered endangered due to hunting, overharvesting of their eggs, as well as loss of regular nesting sites and the degradation of their habitat. Some even get caught and trapped in fishing nets, and not many are released unharmed.
“Marine turtles have roamed the world’s oceans for more than a hundred million years, and are an integral part of our tropical coastal ecosystems,” posted the conservationist group WWF-Australia. “It’s taken humans just 200 years to tip the scales against their survival and these ancient mariners are now considered endangered or vulnerable.”
Only a few large nesting populations exist, and Raine Island is by far the largest among them.Still, scientists are concerned that they are not reproducing at the expected rate mainly due to inhospitable terrain, causing some to fall off cliffs, or get trapped in the heat. Not to mention that sometimes nest eggs suffer from flooding. Dr. Andrew Dunstan of the DES explained, “we sort of became aware that although there’s these massive aggregations, the actual reproduction isn’t working so well.” Researchers have been trying to help out the green turtle population, while at the same time tracking them. They found out that Unmanned Aerial Vehicles (UAV’s) or drones were the best choice. It was easier than trying to paint a white stripe on their shells (with non-toxic paint) and tracking them. “Trying to accurately count thousands of painted and unpainted turtles from a small boat in rough weather was difficult. Using a drone is easier, safer, much more accurate, and the data can be immediately and permanently stored,” a statement explained.
The use of drones showed an incredible 64 thousand green turtles swarming to the island, a number that stunned the researchers, forcing them to revise their historic population estimates. “We were underestimating that a lot. We’re finding 1.73 times as many turtles with the drone and as we do when we directly compare with the observer counts,” Dr. Dunstan added.
Well, new technology is there to help. The future may even see newer methods of tracking, hopefully introducing artificial intelligence that can automate the counting of the turtles using the footage captured by the drone. We anticipate that this news will help mankind realize the plight of not just the green turtles, but all creatures that habitats have been ruined by man, either accidentally, or on purpose.
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