Endangered leatherbacks finding new nesting beaches in Ecuador as Pacific Ocean warms, study finds

A hopeful story for the world’s largest, critically endangered sea turtle may be playing out along the sandy beaches of Ecuador.

A new study found a record-breaking number of eastern Pacific leatherback turtle nests along several beaches in Ecuador during the 2025-2026 nesting season, more than 1,000 miles from their usual nesting grounds in Mexico and Costa Rica. 

The findings suggest leatherbacks may be adapting to the warming ocean by seeking out new nesting sites along coastlines under cooler conditions, says a leading marine eco-toxicologist from Simon Fraser University.

“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,” says Juan José Alava, adjunct professor at the School of Resource and Environmental Management 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. 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.”

In the study published in the journal Chelonian Conservation and Biology, researchers reviewed more than 45 years of records detailing sightings of female turtles of reproductive age, nests, hatching success and nesting attempts, and strandings along Ecuador’s coast. They tracked that activity alongside El Niño and El Niña events that drive cycles of warmer and cooler sea surface temperatures.

Records show increased activity and nesting in Ecuador during cold episodes — or La Niña events — in the southeastern tropical Pacific Ocean over the last decade. Researchers also found the nest yield, or number of eggs per nest, and hatch rates in Ecuador were comparable to those in the traditional nesting grounds further north. In some cases, Alava says, nests in Ecuador produced more hatchlings than usual.

The eastern Pacific leatherback is the only sea turtle that thrives in both warm and cold environments. They migrate thousands of miles each year from their tropical nesting sites to feeding grounds in subpolar Pacific waters, where they fill up on jellyfish during the summer months. Interestingly, leatherbacks have also been observed in waters off Canada’s west coast (British Columbia) with more than 150 records from 1931 to 2024.

Their population has plummeted by more 90 per cent since the 1980s, driven by natural stressors like warm El Niño episodes worsened by anthropogenic climate change, and human-made impacts such as fishing bycatch, plastic pollution, vessel strikes, egg harvesting and nesting habitat loss.

Ongoing monitoring and concerted conservation efforts, bycatch mitigation, and effective coastal zone management to protect Ecuador’s nesting beaches are crucial to for the long-term survival of the eastern Pacific leatherback, Alava says.

“Management and conservation efforts should be championed in close consultation and participation with local and traditional ecological knowledge through coastal, community-grounded interventions.” 

A turtle’s tale: Bella drops a bounty

In 2026, by light of the January moon, a female eastern Pacific leatherback researchers named Bella lumbered up the sand at Ecuador’s Playa de Crucita. Searching for a spot to dig her nest, she became disoriented by nearby streetlamps, climbed over a rock breakwater and ended up on a sidewalk. 

Bella failed to nest and returned to the ocean still heavy with eggs. But she wasn’t giving up. Two nights later, she tried again at quieter section of beach and this time — success. She dug out her nest, dropped 47 eggs, covered her clutch with sand and heaved herself back to the ocean. A few weeks later, 44 hatchlings emerged and journeyed toward the surf. 

It turns out Bella wasn’t done. Researchers had tagged her during her first nesting attempt and discovered she nested four to five times in 2026 alone. One nest remained in place while the others were relocated to the San Jacinto hatchery. 

Researchers say out of the 146 eggs Bella laid this season, 134 baby turtles emerged for an overall success rate of 91.8 per cent.