Nature has provided an uplifting antidote to the doom and gloom of 2020, as breathtaking drone footage has captured the world's largest group of nesting turtles en route to lay their eggs far north of Queensland, Australia.
Raine Island hosts the largest rookery in the world and, by current estimates, compiled using drones, scientists now believe there are 1.73 times the number of turtles previously counted, amounting to almost 64,000.
Green sea turtles are the only herbivorous marine turtle on the planet and are considered an endangered species having faced poaching, overharvesting of their eggs and loss of beach nesting sites, among other challenges to their survival.
The females arrived at the nesting site 620 kilometers (385 miles) northwest of Cairns, from as far away as Papua New Guinea, Indonesia, Vanuatu and New Caledonia, as well as from various coastal areas of Australia itself. Many of them are returning here some 35 years after they were born.
Nesting season usually begins from late October and lasts until February, and the scientists from Queensland Government's Department of Environment and Science (DES) are hoping to more accurately count the turtles using a combination of drone surveillance and artificial intelligence, to better manage population data and hopefully improve conservation efforts overall.
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