BABY turtles in the Mary River are now sporting some tiny tracking devices to record their movements and help manage their environment.

The information will be gathered by researchers from the University of Queensland for the joint project with Tiaro Landcare.

“It was an amazing experience, watching those little turtles run down into the river with their little black transmitters on their back,” Tiaro Landcare president Ron Black said.

“Finally after so many years of protecting nests we have a chance to find out what is happening to these endangered turtles.”

Mr Black said working with researchers from the University of Queensland had opened up many more opportunities than the Landcare group could do on its own.

“The researchers have access to sophisticated hi-tech equipment and knowledge that is beyond the scope of our local community,” he said.

“That was a big achievement to release such young Mary River turtles with transmitters.”

University of Queensland researcher Mariana Campbell, who is researching the Mary River turtles for her PhD, said it was the first study acoustic tagging such small turtles.

“It is only now that the technology has improved to develop such small tags which make this study so novel,” she said.

She hoped the information gained from tracking the baby turtles would help determine which parts of the river they used, and assist in future river management.

Money used to purchase the tags was raised by selling chocolate turtles, which were hand-made by Landcare volunteers.