Scientists at King Abdullah University of Science and Technology (KAUST, Saudi Arabia), in collaboration with the Queensland Government (Australia), have discovered 34 previously unknown seagrass meadows in the Red Sea by tracking the foraging behavior of green turtles. In a new study released in the Proceedings of the Royal Society B journal, the experiment demonstrates the benefits of observing turtles to survey marine ecosystems that are crucial for carbon capture and economic livelihood and provides new information for sustainability policies in the Red Sea. Seagrass, mangroves and salt marshes are the bodies most responsible for blue carbon – carbon absorbed by coastal vegetation – and are more effective than carbon capture than rain forests. Adding their economic value, which is estimated to be at least tens of billions of dollars, international cooperation is ongoing for their sustainability. Relevant policies have heavily depended on satellite observations to survey their locations and size, which are useful for shallow coastal bodies but not nearly as reliable for seagrass. However, models estimate that only 10 percent of seagrass area has been identified. The new study shows that for a more accurate assessment of seagrass, sophisticated space technology benefits when complemented by lazy green laborers […]