A file photo of a Pacific olive ridley sea turtle on the beach in Costa Rica.

An endangered sea turtle made history when she lumbered her way from the ocean onto an Orange County beach last week.

On Wednesday, lifeguards spotted an olive ridley sea turtle digging a nest and laying her eggs near Seal Beach, Aquarium of the Pacific President Jeff Flocken told SFGATE. Three days later, visitors spotted an olive ridley sea turtle near the Huntington Beach Pier, though it’s unclear whether it was the same animal.

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Flocken called the sightings “unprecedented.”

“What happened this week — and we’re very excited about — is there’s never been a recorded instance of any sea turtle nesting on a California beach,” he said. “And we’ve had two confirmed sightings of an olive ridley hauling up onto the beach and nesting — digging a hole.”

An olive ridley sea turtle was observed digging a nest and laying eggs on a beach in Orange County, Calif., on Sept. 16, 2026.

An olive ridley sea turtle dug a nest and laid eggs in Orange County, Calif., on Sept. 16, 2026.

Heidi Stephen and her 9-year-old son Jude from Rancho Santa Margarita came to see the second confirmed olive ridley sea turtle nesting site on the U.S. West Coast on Tuesday, Sept. 22, 2026, in Huntington Beach,........

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