Overview
- Video and eyewitnesses show an olive ridley digging and laying eggs near Seal Beach on Sept. 16 and another nest a few miles south near the Huntington Beach Pier days later, a first-ever recorded natural nesting on the U.S. West Coast.
- NOAA and local, state and federal partners have fenced both sites, posted signs and will monitor the nests through the typical 45 to 60 day incubation period to limit disturbance and predation.
- Olive ridleys are a small Pacific sea turtle species with some breeding populations listed as endangered or threatened and they are protected under U.S. law.
- Scientists link the northward sightings to this year’s unusually warm ocean temperatures from a strong El Niño but say it is uncertain whether eggs will hatch or whether this signals a lasting range shift.
- Officials ask the public to stay back, report sightings to the West Coast stranding hotline at 562-506-4315 and watch for threats to nests such as tides, storms, coyotes and dogs that can reduce hatchling survival.