An estimated 64,000 endanger gullible turtles have been visually captured migrating off the coast of Australia ’s Raine Island – the globe ’s largest dark-green turtle rookery – in a blazing display of drone technology .
The footage was enamour in 2019 as part of theRaine Island Recovery Project , an effort consecrate to preserve the remotecoral cay . Researchers here are working to rebuild nesting beach and put up fencing to prevent turtle dying for the 60,000 + distaff green turtles that add up to the region every twelvemonth to lay eggs in one of the planet ’s “ greatest beast migrations " . Green turtles ( Chelonia mydas ) are list as endanger on theIUCN Red Listwith populations decreasing in large part due to a deprivation of habitat and overfishing of imagination .
Since 1984 , investigator have been approximate turtle populations on Raine Island by score M of the turtles with pigment – a difficult and prison term - consuming task – before visually counting private animal .
“ Previous population survey method acting involved painting a white streak down the green turtles ’ eggshell when they were nesting on the beach . The rouge is non - toxic and wash off in a couple of days , ” said Dr Andrew Dunstan from the Queensland Department of Environment and Science in astatement . “ From a small boat , we then count paint and non - particoloured turtles , but eye are attracted much more to a turtle with a bright white stripe than an unpainted turtle , result in biased counts and reduced truth . ”
In December 2019 , investigator employ the use of Unmanned Aerial Vehicles ( UAVs ) , or drones , to investigate whether more technologically advanced strategies might be more efficient . The squad took the footage and psychoanalyse it frame - by - frame in the lab to weigh the turtle to compare it against the old - fashioned way and the use of underwater Go - Pro footage . The result , which are published in the journalPLOS ONE , show that monotone habit is not only the “ most efficient survey method , ” but is also secure , more accurate , and allow for the data to be permanently stored .
“ We ’re figure the man ’s largest assembling of green turtles captured in these over-the-top drone images that are helping to document the big turtle numbers seen since we set out the Raine Island Recovery Project , ” read Great Barrier Reef Foundation Managing Director Anna Marsden .
Researchers also determined that surface percipient “ consistently reported high proportion of marked turtles ” than either UAV of submersed method acting , which yielded higher population estimation that may have skew conservation movement .
