Marine turtle nesting monitoring

Our coastal intelligence now extends to autodetection and tracking of target species on the beach.

During a 2026 pilot study with the University of Central Florida Marine Turtle Research Group at the Archie Carr National Wildlife Refuge, our coastal observing system tracked adult marine turtles over a 1.5 to 2 kilometer stretch of beach, through the night as they emerged from the surf, crawled up the beach, nested and returned to the water, without the need for additional equipment or personnel on the beach.

UCF researchers confirmed the nesting activity we extracted was nesting turtles, clearly distinguishable from people and vehicles.

We are now optimizing software that automatically detects emerging turtles and reports nesting metrics such as crawl rates, time spent nesting and, potentially, species.

The same low-maintenance, solar-powered station continues to deliver our full suite of real-time oceanographic measurements, so one installation monitors both the nesting beach and the coastal processes that shape it, all without disturbing the turtles.