Biologists and local officials were still grappling with the surprise appearance of the U.S. West Coast’s first-known sea turtle nests when it became clear that the eggs in Seal Beach and Huntington Beach were in dire peril.
Hurricanes Polo and Odalys gathered off the coast of Mexico at the same time that bimonthly astronomical high tides approached. Storm surge and hazardous surf forecast for this weekend would almost surely destroy both nests.
By Thursday, the decision was made: It was time to launch California’s first sea turtle nest rescue operation.
Working in the first light of Friday morning, biologists from the National Oceanic and Atmospheric Administration and the U.S. Fish and Wildlife Service crouched at each nest, where a clutch of golf-ball-sized eggs nestled together in the sand.
They placed the 204 recovered eggs in styrofoam coolers gently packed with sand. The team loaded the makeshift incubators into cars and drove to the Aquarium of the Pacific in Long Beach, with human passengers cradling them the whole way to minimize the vehicles’ vibrations.
The coolers were then placed in a climate-controlled recovery room at the Long Beach facility, where they will remain undisturbed for the duration of the 45- to 60-day incubation period.
“We had to make some quick decisions,” said biologist Jonathan Snyder of the U.S. Fish and Wildlife Service at the aquarium Friday. “This is the decision that we made, and I think it’s the best one for species recovery.”
The nests, which appeared on Sept. 16 in Seal Beach and Sept. 19 in Huntington Beach, are the first known naturally-occurring sea turtle nests on the U.S. West Coast.
The eggs are olive ridleys, an olive-green, heart-shaped turtle that is listed as a threatened animal under the Endangered Species Act.
Olive ridleys are normally found throughout tropical regions of the Pacific, Indian and Atlantic oceans, and usually nest along the coasts of Mexico, Nicaragua, Costa Rica and Panama. They lay eggs both in massive colonies that can contain hundreds of thousands of eggs, and in solitary locales.
Before last week, the farthest known northern nesting ground was approximately 700 miles south of Orange County in the Mexican state of Baja California Sur.
It’s not clear exactly why these two individuals clambered onto the shores of Orange County. Back-to-back marine heat waves and the approaching El Niño have driven up sea temperatures in their usual nesting locations. They may have been seeking more favorable conditions, or they may simply have made a navigational blunder, said Jeffrey Seminoff, who heads NOAA’s marine turtle ecology and assessment program.
“All sea turtles are incredible ancient mariners,” Seminoff said.
The olive ridleys chose two particularly high-traffic spots to deposit their eggs.
The Huntington Beach nest was near a part of the beach that will be blocked off Oct. 2-4 for the Pacific Airshow. The Seal Beach nest, located near the Surfside community, was adjacent to an area where sand berms are planned for the coming winter storms.
The California Coastal Commission, which last year granted the air show a five-year operating permit, had reached out to both cities and the event organizers before the decision was made to remove the eggs.
NOAA has responsibility for U.S. sea turtles in the water, while Fish and Wildlife oversees those on land. Both services joined forces to manage the unexpected nests, along with the aquarium and public safety officials from the cities of Huntington Beach and Seal Beach.
The Aquarium of the Pacific has been rehabilitating sea turtles since 2000, said veterinarian Dr. Lance Adams. Since then, more than 60 turtles rescued from Los Angeles and Orange counties, including some olive ridleys, have been cared for at the facility.
It’s not clear if any of the eggs are viable — they will be left undisturbed during incubation to mimic natural conditions. But if they do hatch, their time at the aquarium will be short. Hatchlings emerge from their eggs with a temporary store of energy from the yolk sac that powers their first trip past breaking waves into the sea. Any that hatch at the aquarium will be released as soon as possible to ensure they have the energy needed for survival.
In optimal conditions, olive ridley nests in the wild have hatch rates of up to 90%. But the life of a baby sea turtle is dangerous and often short, Seminoff said. Less than 1% of hatchlings survive to adulthood. With no hard shell or other defenses, they make a “nice little hors d’oeuvres” for birds, fish and other sea creatures, he said.
Wildlife officials collect the sea turtle eggs.
(U.S. Fish and Wildlife Service)
