(CNN) Researchers have captured beautiful aerial footage of thousands of green turtles congregating on the edge of Australia's Great Barrier Reef during the nesting season. Scientists from Queensland Government's Department of Environment and Science (DES) captured the footage using a drone at the world's largest green turtle rookery at Raine Island, a vegetated coral cay approximately 620 kilometers (385 miles) northwest of Cairns. The creatures nest at Raine Island, a vegetated coral cay. Green turtles, named after the color of their cartilage and fat, are found mostly in tropical and subtropical waters, and migrate long distances between feeding grounds and the beaches where they emerged as hatchlings, some 35 years after they were born. The creatures are endangered and are under threat due to hunting, overharvesting of their eggs, loss of beach nesting sites and becoming trapped in fishing apparatus.

Source: CNN June 09, 2020 11:26 UTC