{"id":931601,"date":"2026-10-17T15:38:11","date_gmt":"2026-10-17T15:38:11","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/au\/931601\/"},"modified":"2026-10-17T15:38:11","modified_gmt":"2026-10-17T15:38:11","slug":"exotic-species-appear-off-california-during-el-nino","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/au\/931601\/","title":{"rendered":"Exotic species appear off California during El Nino"},"content":{"rendered":"

DANA POINT, California \u2013 The longfin bigeye fish was spotted in California for the first time in September, and the first sea turtles of any kind nested on California beaches. Meanwhile, a venomous yellow-bellied sea snake swam ashore as whale sharks and hammerheads cruised just off the coast.<\/p>\n

Exotic species have been visiting California\u2019s shores since an unusually strong El Nino weather phenomenon<\/a> arrived in 2026. Occurring naturally every few years, El Nino brings warm ocean water farther north, and tropical species with it, providing California with a stunning visual display that has become ever more evident with the advent of drone and video technology.<\/p>\n

\u201cThere\u2019s kind of a buzz. Fishermen are loving it for sure. I\u2019m as interested as anybody else. It\u2019s strange times,\u201d said Nate Jaros, vice-president of animal care at the Aquarium of the Pacific in Long Beach.<\/p>\n

Other visitors include flying fish and manta rays.<\/p>\n

California had already experienced an unusual marine heat wave just before its arrival.<\/p>\n

The phenomenon in 2026 coincided with a string of hurricanes in the eastern Pacific, fuelling sea level rise and large waves that have destroyed homes and denuded some Southern California beaches of sand. Preparing for more effects to come this winter, California has declared a state of emergency<\/a>.<\/p>\n

But it has provided a bounty for businesses like Dana Wharf Sportfishing & Whale Watching. Co-owner Donna Kalez said anglers have pulled in 5,000 yellowfin tuna in 2026, compared to two a year ago. They are also landing wahoo and dorado, also known as mahi-mahi, a green fish with a blunt head giving it the profile of a bulldozer.<\/p>\n

\u201cDorado is very exciting because they\u2019re very acrobatic, so they jump out of the water. We catch them off kelp paddies, and it\u2019s a thrill,\u201d Kalez said.<\/p>\n

Experts expect conditions to mostly return to normal after El Nino, a natural phenomenon predating human-caused climate change, passes in 2027. The greatest short-term harm may be to kelp, which thrives in colder waters and provides habitat for multiple species, experts say.<\/p>\n

\u201cIt\u2019s good for some sharks and probably bad for others,\u201d said Chris Lowe, director of the Shark Lab at California State University, Long Beach. \u201cFor animals that can\u2019t move, that\u2019s a bigger problem, right? Most sharks that are highly mobile. They can simply move.\u201d<\/p>\n

The yellow-bellied sea snake may have venomous fangs but cannot swim like a large shark. When an apparently sick one swam ashore in Orange County in September, a beachgoer used a palm frond to lift it off the sand and drop it in the sea. Jaros said that based on cellphone video he had little doubt it was the yellow-bellied sea snake, Hydrophis platurus.<\/p>\n

There have only been six or seven confirmed sightings in California, said William Ludt, associate curator of ichthyology at the Natural History Museum of Los Angeles County. The last confirmed sighting came during the El Nino of 2015-2016, he said.<\/p>\n

Exotic sharks such as the whale shark \u2013 a gentle giant and the largest fish on Earth \u2013 and the more menacing-looking hammerheads venture into California waters during El Nino. Both have been spotted recently. Lowe said a white shark nursery reappeared for the first time since 2011 in Santa Monica Bay, where juveniles frolic without bothering humans.<\/p>\n

Ludt said the aptly named longfin bigeye fish species was recorded for the first time in California in 2026 when an angler caught one on the Venice Fishing Pier in Los Angeles.<\/p>\n

When two olive ridley sea turtle nests were found on a pair of Orange County beaches in September, they marked the first-ever recorded nest for any sea turtle species on the US West Coast, according to the US National Oceanic and Atmospheric Administration.<\/p>\n

The first was discovered by a beachgoer in Seal Beach on Sept 16, the second by lifeguards in neighbouring Huntington Beach three days later, officials said.<\/p>\n

And other new species may yet arrive.<\/p>\n

\u201cWe still aren\u2019t fully through it,\u201d Ludt said. \u201cIt\u2019s still very much ongoing.\u201d REUTERS<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"DANA POINT, California \u2013 The longfin bigeye fish was spotted in California for the first time in September,…\n","protected":false},"author":2,"featured_media":931602,"comment_status":"","ping_status":"","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[26],"tags":[64,63,128,338],"class_list":["post-931601","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","has-post-thumbnail","category-wildlife","tag-au","tag-australia","tag-science","tag-wildlife"],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/au\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/931601","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/au\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/au\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/au\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/2"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/au\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=931601"}],"version-history":[{"count":0,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/au\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/931601\/revisions"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/au\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media\/931602"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/au\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=931601"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/au\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=931601"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/au\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=931601"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}