An olive ridley sea turtle has been coasting in the waters off Dana Point and Laguna Beach over the past week, a rare sighting for the area.

The endangered turtle – named for its green-olive shell color – was spotted off Capistrano Beach and Salt Creek Beach and was observed providing a resting pad for a lone seagull a mile off Laguna Beach.

“He was chillin’ and entertaining a seagull passenger,” said Rodger Healy, a lobster fisherman heading back toward Dana Point Harbor from a trip north. “He would put his head up to get air and every time he did, the seagull would look down to see what he was doing.”

The turtles are the smallest of the sea turtles, topping out at about 100 pounds.

Capt. Steve Burkhalter on Dana Wharf Sportfishing and Whale Watching’s Ocean Adventure was heading toward a pod of dolphins when he noticed a dark green shell – about two feet long – swimming a mile offshore of Capistrano Beach.

“We approached it slowly,” he said. “It seemed really comfortable and was doing ‘turtle things,’ picking its head up to breathe. The shell was really unusual, it was really bulbous.”

Over the last few years, a combination of El Niño storms and a large mass of relatively warm water known as “the blob” have shifted ocean marine life and, especially, turtles off course and into chilly waters that left them stranded on beaches in the Pacific Northwest.

Cold water freezes the reptiles’ muscles and can shut down organs, said Mike Price, who oversees SeaWorld San Diego’s aquarium department.

In the last two years, biologists from SeaWorld have released four rehabilitated turtles found in critical shape because of the cold water conditions of the Northwest. They have one recuperating with them now.

Each turtle was outfitted with satellite tracking devices to monitor their hopeful travel south to where waters are warmer and the turtles naturally tend to live.

Olive ridley sea turtles migrate through warm water currents and convergent zones feeding on jellies, salps, sea squirts and barnacles. Usually, the California current keeps colder water near the shore and warmer waters farther out, making it unusual to see olive ridley sea turtles in places such as Dana Point and Laguna Beach, Price said.

These turtles are solitary. They migrate hundreds or even thousands of miles every year and come together as a group only once a year to mate.

With more turtles being seen in our area because of climate changes, the Southwest Fishery Science Center in La Jolla held training this week on the best practices for making rescues and caring for struggling animals. Participants included veterinarians, biologists and staff from marine mammal and sea turtle rescue centers along the California coast.

Keith Matassa, who leads animal research at the Pacific Marine Mammal Center in Laguna Beach, was among the group. He said the olive ridley sea turtle spotted likely could be a transient or could have been swept toward the Orange County coastline in recent storms. The turtle is not the only unusual sighting so for this year.

The Laguna Beach center has had to make room for early elephant seals and harbor seals that have been stranded. They’ve also responded to half a dozen dying or dead dolphins and have taken in double the number of sea lions compared to last year. Presently, there are 50 animals in-house.

“There’s a lot going on this year,” he said. “This is not a normal year.”