Texas Beaches See Spike in Stranded Baby Sea Turtles After Storms Disrupt Nesting Boom

Texas is having a banner year for sea turtle nesting—great news, right?

Well, not entirely. Along with the record number of Kemp’s ridley nests showing up on North Padre Island, nearly 30 tiny, confused baby turtles have already washed back ashore in just the past week.

These aren’t just any hatchlings—they’re Kemp’s ridleys, the smallest and most endangered sea turtles in the world. Normally, after hatching, they make a mad dash to the ocean and disappear into the surf to begin their lives at sea.

But storms and choppy waters had other plans. Instead of heading off to freedom, they got tossed around by rough waves and ended up right back on Texas beaches—tired, overheated, and in serious danger.

This sudden spike has officials scrambling and asking beachgoers to help—but not in the “scoop up a turtle and play hero” kind of way.

If you spot a stranded hatchling, don’t touch it, don’t try to ‘rescue’ it, and definitely don’t put it back in the water. The best move?

Call the Texas Sea Turtle Hotline at 1-866-TURTLE-5 and let the pros at ARK or the Texas Sealife Center do their thing.

It’s a bittersweet moment: more nests than ever, but also more stranded babies needing help. Let’s not turn a nesting win into a hatchling tragedy.