Amazing Drone Footage Captures Thousands of Turtles Migrating Near Great Barrier Reef

Australian researchers captured a stunning scene that looks like something out of Finding Nemo . The drone the scientists used recorded approximately 64,000 green turtles migrating near Australia’s Great Barrier Reef for nesting season, as CNN reported. The footage from the Queensland Government’s Department of Environment and Science (DES) spotted the turtles congregating at the world’s largest green turtle rookery at Raine Island, a vegetated coral cay approximately 385 miles northwest of Cairns in Queensland, according to CNN . The sheer number of turtles surprised the scientists who realized they had underestimated the number of green turtles in the area by 50 percent, according to Voice of America’s YouTube post showing the footage. "We were underestimating that a lot. We’re finding 1.73 times as many turtles with the drone … when we directly compare with the observer counts," Dr. Andrew Dunstan, from the DES, told CNN Tuesday, adding that the team can now go back and adjust historic population estimates. Prior to using drones, researchers would count turtles as they landed on the beach to lay eggs. They would then mark the turtles with a non-toxic paint to track them in the ocean. However, accurately counting thousands of painted […]

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