A leatherback named Bella saw 134 of her eggs hatch in Ecuador

Eastern Pacific leatherbacks laid a record number of nests on Ecuador beaches in the 2025-26 season, more than 1,000 miles from the nesting grounds most of them still use in Mexico and Costa Rica. Simon Fraser University announced the study on November 9, 2026. It appears in Chelonian Conservation and Biology and reviews more than 45 years of sightings, nests, hatch rates, and strandings, set against El Niño and La Niña swings in sea temperature. Juan José Alava, a co-author, said females on these beaches used to be a rare event. Nest yield and hatch rates were comparable to the traditional beaches farther north, and in some cases higher.

One tagged turtle, Bella, came ashore at Crucita by moonlight in January 2026. Streetlamps turned her around. She climbed a rock breakwater, reached a sidewalk, and returned to the sea still carrying eggs. Two nights later she nested on a quieter stretch, laid 47 eggs, and 44 hatchlings later made the water. She nested four or five times that season. One nest stayed where she dug it. The others were moved to the San Jacinto hatchery. Of 146 eggs, 134 hatchlings emerged, a rate of 91.8 percent. The subspecies has fallen by more than 90 percent since the 1980s. The news is this nesting season and Bella's hatch rate. It is not a recovered population.