A strong hurricane projected to impact Southern California this weekend is forcing scientists to scramble to find rare sea turtle eggs on beaches and remove them from harm’s way.

Officials with U.S. Fish and Wildlife Service moved eggs Friday ahead of Hurricane Polo, a category 5 hurricane churning off the west coast of Mexico. It won’t hit California directly, but the storm could cause large ocean swells and coastal flooding.

The egg rescue included two nests in Huntington Beach and Seal Beach, each with about 100 eggs, which are apparently the first documented natural sea turtle nests on the U.S. West Coast.

The species, the olive ridley sea turtle, is considered endangered on Mexico’s Pacific coast under the U.S. Endangered Species Act.

“Due to hazardous surf conditions expected to coincide with this weekend’s high tides, there is an elevated concern that the nests will be washed away,” the aquarium said in a news release. “Collectively, we made the challenging decision to carefully move the olive ridley sea turtle eggs from the wild to the Aquarium of the Pacific.”

Biologists carefully removed the eggs one-by-one early Friday morning and put them into Styrofoam coolers. They were later placed into the aquarium’s climate-controlled recovery room for incubation.

They will likely hatch in 45 to 60 days, the aquarium said.

The egg sightings in California are unusual, biologists said, as the olive ridley turtle usually never nests in the U.S. but typically do in Mexico. Jeff Seminoff, with NOAA’s Marine Turtle Ecology and Assessment Program, told King5 it could be a “navigational blunder.”

“For some reason, they probably thought that they’re a little bit farther south,” he said on the turtles, which typically go back to the same beaches they were hatched in. “The closest nested nesting beaches are about 700 miles south from here.”

Video of the nest-laying went viral, and both nesting spots were fenced off. Beach visitors were asked to stay away.

For now, the eggs will be kept at the aquarium, which promised updates to social media followers on the eggs’ conditions.

Meanwhile, coastal cities in California are preparing for the storm to bring large waves that will batter beaches and potentially flood homes or parking lots.

The National Weather Service forecasted elevated surf and powerful rip currents along Southern California beaches beginning this weekend and stretching into next week as several southerly swells roll toward the coast.