Sea turtles have always been thought to be loners. Turns out, these ocean reptiles may not be total party animals, but they do like to check each other out sometimes. Marine biologist Nathan Robinson studies juvenile green sea turtles in The Bahamas. He designed and built a camera that fits on a sea turtle’s shell. He calls the ‘go pro’ type camera TurtleCam. He uses it to record the animals’ underwater activity.
At first, he wanted to use the footage to find out what they were eating because he wondered if there was enough food for all the turtles that lived around the island. But the video revealed a secret underwater life. It showed the turtles chasing and biting, nudging and nuzzling!
I spent a few days with Dr. Robinson to learn more about his TurtleCam work. You can read my article, TurtleCam in the January 2020 issue of Muse magazine to learn more about this exciting research.
Check out this link to Dr. Robinson’s, The Wandering Biologist Youtube page to view TurtleCam in action: “Seeing Through the Eyes of a Sea Turtle!” https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=ZRqPXDTTwTc
To order a copy of this issue, follow the link to Cricket Media’s website:
https://shop.cricketmedia.com/muse-back-issues/MUSE-Magazine-January-2020-Mysteries-of-the-Deep.html
Susan Hunnicutt 