World’s Rarest Sea Turtle Lays Eggs on Texas Beach for First Time Ever

For the first time ever, one of the world's rarest species of sea turtles has laid some eggs on a Texas beach. I mean, who can blame her? Texas is awesome.

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The news comes from Texas A&M University College of Geosciences who report that this is the first time this has ever happened in Texas in modern history.

According to Texas Sea Grant, about 45 hatching Kemp's Ridley eggs were discovered on Magnolia Beach which is northeast of Corpus Christi, Texas.

This has never happened in modern times,” said Dr. Pamela Plotkin, director of Texas Sea Grant and sea turtle biologist. “Sea turtles typically nest on barrier island beaches in Texas and so seeing a turtle nest on a beach inside any bay is rare. There are many miles of unpopulated bay shoreline along Texas’ coast, so it is possible that sea turtle nesting on these shores is more frequent and undetected. (Texas Sea Grant)

Kemp's Ridley turtles are the smallest sea turtle and are actually endangered. Something I didn't know is that this sea turtle is actually the state turtle of Texas according to Wikipedia. Who knew we had a state turtle?

The eggs were found by maintenance workers with the Calhoun County Precinct 1 Commissioner’s Office who were picking up trash on the beach when they noticed the eggs. They had spotted several hatching turtles and they appeared to be going the wrong way. The workers sprung into action to help the little rare sea turtles.

Check out the video of the little fellas, courtesy of Texas Sea Grant

Pretty cute little things, right? Kudos to the maintenance workers and to Sea Grant at Texas A&M University for their conservation efforts.