Sea turtles move north

“Sea turtles have nested on the US West Coast for the first time in recorded history, with two olive ridley turtles laying eggs on beaches in Orange County, California last month. It’s not yet known whether the nests were isolated events or signs of a northward shift in nesting patterns,” notes The Doomslayer.

The Guardian reports:

“A sea turtle crawled out of the surf in southern California last weekend around sunset and started laying eggs in the sand. People on Huntington Beach who saw the female olive ridley sea turtle were shocked and excited. And they weren’t the only ones freaking out, said Justin Viezbicke, the California stranding coordinator for the National Oceanic and Atmospheric Association (Noaa).

‘This is the first documented case of a turtle nesting on the west coast,’ Viezbicke said…While it’s too soon to tell, it’s also possible that these first recorded US coastal nests could herald a broader northward shift in the olive ridley turtle’s nesting patterns.”

Sea turtles are rebounding globally. A record-breaking number of sea turtle nests were found on Anna Maria island in Florida’s Manatee County in 2024. In 2023, sea turtle nests tripled near Kennedy Space Center.

Olive ridley turtles and Bengal tigers are making a comeback in Bangladesh, even though Bangladesh is one of the world’s most densely-populated nations, with nearly as many people per square mile than cities like Atlanta. (Bangladesh has 178 million people living in an area the size of Arkansas).