Sea turtles nested in California for the first time ever

Olive ridley sea turtles have nested on California beaches for the first time ever recorded, laying their eggs on Seal Beach and later on Huntington Beach, eight miles north and three days apart. The first female climbed out of the sea in broad daylight, dug a nest, left her clutch, and returned to the water. She left behind a small trail in the sand and a couple of speechless lifeguards. The species breeds in large colonies in Costa Rica and Mexico, but had never been seen this far north. "I wasn't expecting to see olive ridley sea turtles nesting in Orange County," said Lindsey Peavey Reeves, a senior scientist with the National Marine Sanctuary Foundation. When extreme high tides and two hurricanes threatened the nests last weekend, federal officials carried out California's first turtle egg rescue, packing 204 eggs into coolers of sand and driving them to the Aquarium of the Pacific in Long Beach. Back-to-back marine heatwaves are the suspected reason they came.