Sea turtles nested on California's coast for the first time ever — and rescuers beat a hurricane to the eggs

Olive ridley sea turtles normally nest on beaches in Mexico, so biologists were astonished to find two nests — the first confirmed natural sea turtle nesting ever recorded on the US West Coast — near Seal Beach and Huntington Beach in California this September. As Hurricane Polo approached with dangerous surf, an interagency team collected more than 200 eggs (100 from Huntington Beach, 104 from Seal Beach) and moved them to the Aquarium of the Pacific in Long Beach, where they are being incubated under expert care. If the eggs hatch as expected in mid-November, the tiny turtles will be released into the ocean near the beaches where their mothers laid them.

SDG 14 · Life below water — Mechanism: institutional program