Plate Nº 15 · recorded November 10, 2026
Biology & EvolutionReported finding
Record Leatherback Nests in Ecuador Offer Hope for a Dying Turtle Subspecies
Ecuador logged record leatherback nests in 2025–2026, over 1,600 km from usual grounds. One tagged female, Bella, hatched 134 of 146 eggs — a 91.8% success rate.
By Priya Raman4 min read709 words
In brief
- Record leatherback nesting recorded on Ecuador's beaches in the 2025–2026 season, more than 1,600 km from usual grounds in Mexico and Costa Rica
- A tagged female named Bella laid 146 eggs in 2026; 134 hatchlings emerged, a 91.8% success rate
- Eastern Pacific leatherbacks have declined more than 90% since the 1980s
- Study analyzed over 45 years of records, published in Chelonian Conservation and Biology (DOI: 10.2744/CCB-1686.1)
- Over 150 leatherback records exist off British Columbia, Canada, from 1931 to 2024
Researchers counted a record number of eastern Pacific leatherback turtle nests on Ecuador's beaches during the 2025–2026 nesting season, more than 1,000 miles (1,600 kilometers) from the turtles' usual breeding grounds in Mexico and Costa Rica.
The finding, published in the journal Chelonian Conservation and Biology, suggests that the world's largest sea turtle may be adapting to a warming Pacific by seeking cooler coastlines on which to lay its eggs. The eastern Pacific leatherback is critically endangered, and scientists have projected its extinction in the region within 60 years if current trends hold.
"Historically, observing female eastern Pacific leatherbacks on Ecuador's beaches was a rare or unusual event, but our findings suggest they are adapting their reproductive cycle to thrive and survive in coastal Ecuador," said Juan José Alava, adjunct professor at the School of Resource and Environmental Management at Simon Fraser University and leading co-author of the study.
"It signals new hope for a subspecies of leatherback on track for extinction in the eastern Pacific within 60 years," Alava said. "They are making their way alongside nature against all odds, representing hope for this species and other sea turtle species even as they reach tipping points."
What did the researchers actually measure?
The team reviewed more than 45 years of records along Ecuador's coast, including sightings of reproductive-age females, nests, hatching success, nesting attempts and strandings. They compared this activity with El Niño and La Niña events (recurring climate cycles that alternately warm and cool sea surface temperatures in the tropical Pacific).
The records show increased nesting activity in Ecuador during La Niña episodes, the cooler phases, over the last decade. The nest yield (the number of eggs per nest) and hatch rates in Ecuador matched those at the traditional nesting grounds farther north. In some cases, nests in Ecuador produced more hatchlings than usual.
Why does a single turtle matter?
In January 2026, under the light of the moon, a female leatherback the researchers named Bella hauled herself up the sand at Playa de Crucita. Disoriented by streetlamps, she climbed over a rock breakwater, ended up on a sidewalk and returned to the ocean without nesting.
Two nights later she tried again on a quieter stretch of beach. She dug her nest, laid 47 eggs, covered them with sand and returned to the sea. Weeks later, 44 hatchlings emerged.
Bella was not finished. Tagged during her first attempt, she nested four to five times in 2026 alone. One nest stayed in place; the others were moved to the San Jacinto hatchery. Of the 146 eggs she laid across the season, 134 hatchlings emerged — a success rate of 91.8%, roughly nine of every ten eggs.
How much trouble is the population in?
The eastern Pacific leatherback has declined by more than 90% since the 1980s. The causes are layered:
- natural stressors such as warm El Niño episodes, worsened by human-driven climate change;
- fishing bycatch (turtles accidentally caught in fishing gear);
- plastic pollution;
- vessel strikes;
- egg harvesting;
- loss of nesting habitat.
The turtle is uniquely resilient among sea turtles: it is the only species that thrives in both warm and cold environments, migrating thousands of miles each year from tropical nesting sites to subpolar Pacific waters, where it feeds on jellyfish through the summer. Leatherbacks have also been recorded in the waters off British Columbia, Canada, with more than 150 observations between 1931 and 2024.
What happens next?
Alava stresses that the nests alone will not save the subspecies. Ongoing monitoring, bycatch mitigation (measures that keep turtles out of fishing gear) and coastal zone management to protect Ecuador's nesting beaches remain crucial.
"Management and conservation efforts should be championed in close consultation and participation with local and traditional ecological knowledge through coastal, community-grounded interventions," he said.
The study, "A New Hope: Eastern Pacific Leatherback (Dermochelys coriacea) Nesting and Stranding Observations Amidst a Warming Ocean Show the Value of Ecuador for Species Persistence" (DOI: 10.2744/CCB-1686.1), is preliminary evidence of a range shift, not proof of recovery. Still, the shift is a rare piece of good news.
One turtle on a dark beach, laying her eggs far from where her species has always bred.
via phys.org/rss-feed/ (Source)
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Senior reporter covering people, launches and day-to-day practice in general science news at SciBeat.
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