Tens of thousands of turtles in rare sighting of ‘world’s biggest swarm’ off the coast of Australia

Stunning drone video captures the rare sight of migrating turtles and could show one of the biggest sea turtle swarms ever captured on camera.

The footage show thousands of green sea turtles flocking to Raine Island off the coast of Australia.

The turtles head towards the island each year to lay their eggs.

According to Australian Geographic, as many as 64,000 female green turtles are known to make the journey.

The academic publication also claims that the images could show one of the biggest swarms ever observed.

Some green turtles travel thousands of kilometres across the ocean to reach the popular egg laying spot.

Previously, researchers would paint a non-toxic white stripe down the turtles' shells and would count the turtles, those with and without white stripes, from a small boat.

But this method of counting proved inaccurate due to visibility conditions, the researchers said in a media release. Using drone vision, they were able to analyse each frame in a laboratory, and calculated that the turtles' population had been under-estimated in the past by a factor of 1.73.

The Great Barrier Reef, covering 348,000 square km (134,000 square miles), was listed as a World Heritage site in 1981 as the most extensive and spectacular coral reef ecosystem on the planet.

Read more
Rare photos reveal tens of THOUSANDS of turtles in ‘world’s biggest swarm’ near remote Pacific island
https://www.thesun.co.uk/tech/11817977/rare-turtle-swarm-photos/

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Видео Tens of thousands of turtles in rare sighting of ‘world’s biggest swarm’ off the coast of Australia канала The Sun