Page "Olive ridley sea turtle" Paragraph 12

Some of the olive ridley ’ s foraging grounds near southern California are contaminated due to sewage, agricultural runoff, pesticides, solvents and industrial discharges.

These contaminants have been shown to decline the productivity of the benthic community, which negatively affects these turtles that get their nutrition from these communities.

The increasing demand to build marinas and docks near Baja California and southern California are also negatively impacting the olive ridleys in these areas, in which an increase in oil and gas will be released into these sensitive habitats.

Another major threat to these turtles are power plants ; specifically the San Diego Gas & Electric ( SDG & E ) plant in Carslbad, and the Southern California Edison Nuclear Generating Station in San Onofre.

Both these plants have documented juvenile and sub-adult turtles becoming entrained and entrapped within the saltwater cooling intake systems.