- PETS & ANIMALS
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ByABC7.com staff
Friday, September 25, 2026 8:00PM
Long Beach (KABC) –Eggs from two endangered olive ridley sea turtle nests discovered on Orange County beaches were moved to the Aquarium of the Pacific in Long Beach over concerns that high surf and tides could wash away the nests.
The nests were discovered last week in Seal Beach and Huntington Beach, the first ever documented case for a natural sea turtle nest on the West Coast.
On Friday, biologists collected the eggs and transferred them to the aquarium, where they will be incubated in a temperature-controlled environment.
Officials said they had been monitoring Hurricane Polo and potential beach hazards in Orange and San Diego counties. Hazardous surf conditions expected to coincide with high tides over the weekend prompted the decision to remove the eggs from the beaches.
If the eggs aref November, officials said
Researchers said the turtles likely moved north because of warm El Niño waters, raising the possibility that more nesting activity could follow.
Jeffrey Seminoff of NOAA Fisheries said the discovery was unexpected.
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A rare olive ridley sea turtle has laid eggs in Orange County, marking the first documented nesting of its kind on the West Coast.
“Two individuals crawling up on our shores within eight kilometers of each other in Orange County. And it’s just a totally unexpected, totally different sort of a scenario in the turtle world than we’d ever expected,” Seminoff said.
Scientists say the unprecedented nesting activity may not be over. Seminoff noted that olive ridley sea turtles often nest multiple times during a single nesting season.
According to the National Oceanic and Atmospheric Administration, or NOAA, olive ridley turtles are the smallest sea turtles, with adults weighing up to 100 pounds and growing between 2 and 3 feet in length.
Anyone who finds a stranded turtle can call the NOAA Fisheries West Coast Stranding Hotline at 562-506-4315.
Sightings of sea turtles can be reported using the NOAA Fisheries West Coast Facebook account.
City News Service contributed to this report.
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