{"id":472141,"date":"2026-09-22T18:12:15","date_gmt":"2026-09-22T18:12:15","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-ca\/472141\/"},"modified":"2026-09-22T18:12:15","modified_gmt":"2026-09-22T18:12:15","slug":"endangered-sea-turtle-lays-eggs-on-california-beach-for-first-time-in-recorded-history","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-ca\/472141\/","title":{"rendered":"Endangered sea turtle lays eggs on California beach for first time in recorded history"},"content":{"rendered":"<p>It is the first-ever recorded natural nesting for any sea turtle species on the U.S. West Coast, NOAA Fisheries said.<\/p>\n<p>HUNTINGTON BEACH, Calif. \u2014 An <a href=\"https:\/\/www.fisheries.noaa.gov\/species\/olive-ridley-turtle\" target=\"_blank\" rel=\"noopener noreferrer nofollow\">olive ridley sea turtle\u00a0<\/a>laid eggs on a Southern California beach for the first time in recorded history, officials said Monday.\u00a0<\/p>\n<p>NOAA Fisheries said the turtle, named after the olive green color of its heart-shaped shell, dug a nest and laid eggs near Seal Beach in Orange County, California, just south of Long Beach.\u00a0<\/p>\n<p>&#8220;This is the first-ever recorded natural nesting for any sea turtle species on the U.S. West Coast,&#8221; the service said in a <a href=\"https:\/\/www.facebook.com\/NOAAFisheriesWestCoast\/posts\/pfbid07amM5BQ7qotqQXPrBKowxCHHu4bobyqYe4XXi4LZGSKiB7ecEB262r4KYedZdyEHl?__cft__%5B0%5D=AZh_--ZYGZ5-SqBPndhlpMbv9QZuinPUQu3UGJRSveEwtZU7lHyGGwUdNDiPTiLScUq7jkGvyFnZRQDERFpmiGzipTsncTkfAg9ipB7_HKV9avBVxPqqYXsrLrpdWPKS7qnOJdNGYc-BSvekLRjQwxrXeY-fF7V3lAZkHqnrRk9ZcjC3BlEkWzygdXA&amp;__tn__=%252CO%252CP-R\" target=\"_blank\" rel=\"noopener noreferrer nofollow\">social media post<\/a> alongside photos and videos of the turtle making its nest and laying eggs.<\/p>\n<p>Days after the turtle was spotted, another was caught laying eggs in Huntington Beach, south of Seal Beach. NOAA Fisheries said they don&#8217;t know if it was the same turtle in both instances, but both nests and clutches are now fenced, protected and should remain undisturbed.<\/p>\n<p>Sea turtles are protected under the<a href=\"https:\/\/www.fisheries.noaa.gov\/topic\/laws-policies\/endangered-species-act\" target=\"_blank\" rel=\"noopener noreferrer nofollow\" id=\"isPasted\">\u00a0Endangered Species Act<\/a>, which aims to conserve endangered and threatened species and their ecosystems.<\/p>\n<p>The typical incubation period for these turtle eggs lasts between 45 and 60 days.\u00a0<\/p>\n<p>The olive ridley turtle is the &#8220;smallest of the sea turtles,&#8221; NOAA Fisheries said. Adults weigh up to 100 lbs and can grow up to 3 feet in length. They can live up to 50 years and are found worldwide, but typically stick to the Pacific, Indian, and Atlantic Oceans.<\/p>\n<p>The turtles usually lay eggs across South America&#8217;s coastline, primarily in Mexico, Nicaragua, Costa Rica, and Panama.<\/p>\n<p>&#8220;While occasionally seen in Southern California following warm currents, this species has never been documented to nest in the United States,&#8221; NOAA Fisheries said.\u00a0<\/p>\n<p>Justin Viezbicke, with NOAA Fisheries, told <a href=\"https:\/\/abc7.com\/post\/olive-ridley-sea-turtle-lays-eggs-orange-county-first-west-coast\/19856119\/\" target=\"_blank\" rel=\"noopener noreferrer nofollow\">ABC7 Los Angeles<\/a> the placement of these nests is not the only odd thing.\u00a0<\/p>\n<p>&#8220;Typically, they (lay eggs) during the night. This one has been a little abnormal in the fact she came up during the day and right as the sun was setting,&#8221; he said. &#8220;There is potential there could be other nests we do not know about.&#8221;<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"It is the first-ever recorded natural nesting for any sea turtle species on the U.S. West Coast, NOAA&hellip;\n","protected":false},"author":2,"featured_media":472142,"comment_status":"","ping_status":"","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[33],"tags":[131,133,132],"class_list":["post-472141","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","has-post-thumbnail","category-long-beach","tag-long-beach","tag-long-beach-headlines","tag-long-beach-news"],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-ca\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/472141","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-ca\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-ca\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-ca\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/2"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-ca\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=472141"}],"version-history":[{"count":0,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-ca\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/472141\/revisions"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-ca\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media\/472142"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-ca\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=472141"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-ca\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=472141"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-ca\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=472141"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}