Collaborative Project Aims to Protect Green Turtles on Raine Island
A collaboration between the State Government, the Federal Government, and the Great Barrier Reef Marine Park Authority (GBRMPA) has resulted in thousands of turtles being counted, rescued, tagged, relocated, and hatched on Raine Island.
The Raine Island Recovery Project, completed in December 2025, documented almost 20,000 turtles gathering in the ocean and nearly 4,000 turtles coming onto the island at night to lay eggs.
Raine Island is the world’s largest green turtle rookery and is the source of almost 90 percent of the northern Great Barrier Reef green turtle population.
Queensland Minister for the Environment Andrew Powell said Raine Island is vital for the survival of many species, despite its small size.
He said that the program has contributed to an estimated increase of 640,000 green turtles over the years.
Federal Minister for the Environment and Water Murray Watt said green turtles face pressures from climate change and that projects like this are important for their survival.
Minister Watt stated that warming temperatures put species like the green turtle at increased risk of extinction without intervention.
Chair of Mer Gedkem Le RNTBC Falen Passi said three satellite tags were deployed this season to track the turtles after nesting.
“As previous satellite tags have shown that green turtles migrate back to feeding grounds in the northern Great Barrier Reef and the Torres Strait,” Mr Passi said.
Chair of Wuthathi Aboriginal Corporation Keron Murray said an additional 50 clutches were relocated from Raine Island to a shade structure on Sir Charles Hardy (Wuthathi National Park) as part of the Project Egg Relocation Program.
“That makes 100 clutches to have been relocated to the shade structure, and we’re using temperature logging devices to see if shade cloth can cool incubation temperatures to help produce more male hatchlings,” Mr Murray said.
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