Refer to the Aquatic Biology (Vol. 9, 2010) study of green sea turtles inhabiting the Grand Cayman South Sound lagoon, Exercise 7.24 (p. 326). Time-depth recorders were deployed on 6 of the 76 captured turtles. The time-depth recorders allowed the environmentalists to track the movement of the sea turtles in the lagoon. These 6 turtles had a mean shell length of 52.9 cm with a standard deviation of 6.8 cm.

a. Use the information on the 6 tracked turtles to estimate, with 99% confidence, the true mean shell length of all green sea turtles in the lagoon. Interpret the result.

b. What assumption about the distribution of shell lengths must be true in order for the confidence interval, part a, to be valid? Is this assumption reasonably satisfied? (Use the data saved in the TURTLES file to help you answer this question.)