Through the Eyes of a Sea Turtle

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• By Nathan Jack Robinson

Description

Have you ever wondered what it would be like to swim through the ocean like a sea turtle? We certainly have, and the idea of seeing the world through the eyes of a sea turtle inspired us to start the ‘TurtleCam’ project. 

These devices, or TurtleCams, are made up of a small dive camera, a radio transmitter, and a couple of recycled foam buoys. Each of these items is glued together to create a device that can be mounted directly on the shell of a free-swimming sea turtle using corrodible links that detach within a few hours allowing us to recover it and the footage it contains. These TurtleCams are providing us with a first-person (or should it be first-turtle?) perspective of how sea turtles see the world around them. 

The following footage was collected from a TurtleCam that was deployed onto a green sea turtle, Chelonia mydas, in the waters of Eleuthera, an island in The Bahamas. To learn more about the TurtleCam project, contact me at nathanjackrobinson@gmail.com 

Funding for this project was provided by the NOAA program, Our Way Together, as well as the Cape Eleuthera Institute.