AILSA CHANG, HOST:
Huntington Beach here in Southern California is often full of people sunbathing, surfing, playing in the waves. But recently, the beach saw some unusual visitors - sea turtles, specifically olive ridley sea turtles. Fans of Disney's "Finding Nemo" might be able to guess why.
(SOUNDBITE OF FILM, "FINDING NEMO")
ANDREW STANTON: (As Crush) Leave them on a beach to hatch and then, coo-coo-cachoo, they find their way back to the big old blue.
CHANG: This is the first natural sea turtle nesting on the West Coast of the U.S., at least that we know about, because olive ridley turtles are normally found in tropical regions, places like Mexico, Nicaragua, Costa Rica. And we wanted to know what led these turtles to California's shores. So marine ecologist Jeff Seminoff joins us now. He leads the marine turtle ecology and assessment program at NOAA's Southwest Fisheries Science Center. Welcome.
JEFF SEMINOFF: Thanks so much, Ailsa.
CHANG: So what was it like to get the call at first that there were not one but two natural sea turtle nests in California?
SEMINOFF: Well, I have to say, I've been studying sea turtles in California for about 25 years. And when I got that call on the 16 of September, I about fell out of my chair, to be honest.
CHANG: That's so cool. So what did you decide to do with these particular nests?
SEMINOFF: The original plan was to keep these nests in their original spot where they were deposited. But in the last couple weeks, there was that Hurricane Polo that came in, and our counterparts at the U.S. Fish and Wildlife Service made a decision to move those eggs to save them because it was in a spot where surely they would have been inundated or flooded. And they were transported to a spot where they're now being incubated off-site.
CHANG: Right, at the Aquarium of the Pacific in Long Beach, right?
SEMINOFF: That's correct. Exactly.
CHANG: What does caring for these eggs look like? Because in the wild, these eggs are buried and they're mostly left to their own devices. Am I correct?
SEMINOFF: That's correct. There's no parental care with sea turtles.
CHANG: Dang.
SEMINOFF: Once a mom comes up to the beach and lays her eggs, she leaves. She doesn't come back to feed them or care for them at all. And much like in...
CHANG: You're on your own, kid.
SEMINOFF: Yeah, exactly. You're on your own. Much like in their natural conditions, at the Aquarium of the Pacific those eggs are now in what we call incubation boxes and just being left alone in a climate-controlled setting until they develop and hatch.
CHANG: So what do you think led to these particular olive ridley turtles to venture up the coast of California?
SEMINOFF: Well, as you rightly say, Ailsa, they are a tropical species. They typically don't nest in California. We're sort of a temperate climate up here. But we're also experiencing sustained warm water temperatures for some time now. And what that has probably done is created sort of a warm water bridge...
CHANG: Whoa.
SEMINOFF: ...That sort of creates this opening for turtles that might be in the high seas or in tropical areas to come into these temperate habitats to nest.
CHANG: So they're not, like, lost?
SEMINOFF: In fact, they may be lost. We're not quite sure. Typically, sea turtles go back to nest from the very same beaches from which they hatched some 18 to 20 years prior. And so, in this case, probably these females had not nested in California before. But it's a species that is incredibly flexible. And with these warm water conditions, it's very possible that they just took advantage of these warm conditions and came to the coast of California to deposit their eggs.
CHANG: Do you think because these particular turtles, their eggs were laid in Huntington Beach, does that mean that if any of these babies that end up hatching survive into adulthood, could they come back to nest at Huntington Beach in the future? What do you think?
SEMINOFF: Everything we know about sea turtles would say yes. They have what's called natal imprinting, which means that once they become adults, they're going to go back to the same beach where they hatched from - and in this case, their home in Southern California.
CHANG: I love that. A new tradition perhaps has started, then.
SEMINOFF: We'll see.
CHANG: We'll see. Jeff Seminoff. He's a marine ecologist and leader of the marine turtle ecology and assessment program at NOAA's Southwest Fisheries Science Center. Thank you so much for joining us today.
SEMINOFF: Ailsa, it's been a great pleasure. Thanks so much.
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