Amazing drone technology has helped researchers count turtles on the Great Barrier Reef.
Researchers at Raine Island, the world’s largest green turtle rookery, have used a drone to conduct accurate population surveys.
Drone vision, captured in December 2019 as part of the Raine Island recovery project, showed up to 64,000 green turtles around the island waiting to come ashore and lay clutches of eggs.
Dr Andrew Dunstan from the Department of Environment and Science (DES) said researchers had been investigating different ways of conducting turtle population surveys.
“New scientific research published on Monday 8 June in PLOS one found that drones were found to be the most efficient survey method,” he explained.
Credit: Great Barrier Reef Foundation and Queensland Gov./Cover Images
