TORONTO -- Australian researchers have captured spectacular drone footage showing tens of thousands of sea turtles nesting on an island near the Great Barrier Reef.
Researchers from the Queensland Department of Environment and Science recorded the massive bale of green turtles congregating on Raine Island, a small vegetated coral cay in a remote area of the Great Barrier Reef, which is located in the Coral Sea just off the coast of Queensland.
The Great Barrier Reef Foundation to highlight the work they are doing with the Raine Island Recovery Project to count all the turtles at Raine Island, a place , according to the Queensland government鈥檚 website.
Raine island is a protected national park and is not accessible to the public. The project is working to protect and restore the island鈥檚 green sea turtle habitat.
The aerial footage was captured in December 2019, when researchers flew a drone over Raine Island to survey some 64,000 green sea turtles as they swam around the island and waited to come ashore to lay their eggs. were published in the PLOS ONE journal on June 4.
Researchers said drone technology has helped them more accurately track and document the endangered creatures than a previously used method that involved painting the turtles鈥� shells with a non-toxic white paint and counting them manually from a small boat in the water. They plan to use drones to better understand and manage the dwindling turtle population.
Green sea turtles are and are found mainly in tropical and subtropical waters. They are known to travel great distances to migrate between feeding and nesting grounds.
The green turtle is classified as an endangered species, . The biggest threats to their survival are overharvesting of their eggs, loss of nesting beach sites, hunting, and being caught in fishing nets.
While an exact number on the worldwide population of the green sea turtle species remains unknown, alive today based on nesting beach monitoring reports tracked by Sea Turtle Conservancy.
