Green sea turtles are making a comeback south of Los Angeles

Once on the path to extinction, East Pacific green sea turtles in L.A. are coming back in a major way – right in the middle of suburbia.

AILSA CHANG, HOST:

Often, when we tell stories about animals, it’s about how badly they’re doing, which was the case for green sea turtles on the West Coast not all that long ago. But a very different story is playing out right now just south of Los Angeles here, where those turtles are coming back in a major way – right in the middle of suburbia, in the San Gabriel River. Jacob Margolis from LAist has this story.

(SOUNDBITE OF ANIMAL SOUNDS)

JACOB MARGOLIS, BYLINE: Given how the San Gabriel River looks, it’s tough to imagine that it’s hosting what’s likely one of the largest gatherings of sea turtles in Southern California. I mean, there’s people speeding by on the 605 freeway. There’s a suitcase floating by. And you’ve got to go down these huge concrete embankments just to get to the water.

Oh, yeah. That’s really wet (laughter).

But when you do, sure enough, within no time at all, gliding just beneath the murky surface…

There we go. Green sea turtle (laughter). This is amazing.

Green sea turtles like this one are often born on a beach about 1,600 miles away, in Michoacan, Mexico, where masses of these turtles pop out of their shells all at once and start scurrying towards the water.

JEFFREY SEMINOFF: The vast majority of those animals are not the lucky ones.

MARGOLIS: Jeffrey Seminoff is a turtle researcher with the National Oceanic and Atmospheric Administration.

SEMINOFF: They’ll get picked off by ghost crabs or raccoons or birds or fish. They just don’t make it. You know, less than 1 in 100 hatchlings typically make it to adulthood.

MARGOLIS: There are different populations of green sea turtles around the world, and many of them are either endangered or threatened – often due to habitat loss, ship strikes and accidentally getting caught by fishermen. The green sea turtles here in…