{"id":502561,"date":"2026-10-20T20:14:08","date_gmt":"2026-10-20T20:14:08","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-ca\/502561\/"},"modified":"2026-10-20T20:14:08","modified_gmt":"2026-10-20T20:14:08","slug":"this-super-el-nino-is-drawing-exotic-species-to-the-california-coast","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-ca\/502561\/","title":{"rendered":"This Super El Ni\u00f1o Is Drawing Exotic Species to the California Coast"},"content":{"rendered":"

Off the coast of California, a historically strong El Ni\u00f1o<\/a> is unfolding on top of a record-breaking marine heatwave, pushing<\/a> ocean temperatures to new heights. In addition to boosting sea levels<\/a> and amplifying storm risks<\/a>, all that extra heat is encouraging exotic species to pay the Golden State a visit.<\/p>\n

In September, a woman walking with her family at Crystal Cove in Orange County spotted<\/a> a venomous yellow-bellied sea snake. It was only the sixth confirmed sighting in California, and five of those washed up during El Ni\u00f1o years. Local fisherman Julius Cardines recently caught<\/a> a longfinned bigeye\u2014the first ever seen in the state\u2014off the Venice Fishing Pier in Los Angeles. Other SoCal residents have reported sightings of\u00a0whale sharks<\/a>, olive ridley sea turtles<\/a>, hammerhead sharks<\/a>, oceanic manta rays<\/a>, and pilot whales<\/a> that rarely venture into these usually chilly waters.<\/p>\n

The wave of non-native visitors is yet another sign of the profound impact El Ni\u00f1o is already having on California<\/a>, and we\u2019re still months away<\/a> from its expected peak.<\/p>\n

El Ni\u00f1o shakes up marine ecology <\/p>\n

El Ni\u00f1o begins with a weakening of trade winds that pushes warm water from the western Pacific Ocean to the central and eastern tropical Pacific. Heightened water temperatures in this region pump huge amounts of heat and moisture into the atmosphere, altering weather patterns across the globe. But major changes take place beneath the ocean\u2019s surface as well.<\/p>\n

According to the Scripps Institution of Oceanography, El Ni\u00f1o tends to reduce<\/a> coastal upwelling\u2014when warm surface water is replaced by cold, nutrient-rich water from the deep ocean. This is an important food source for plankton, which are foundational to the marine food web. At the same time, El Ni\u00f1o can force less heat-tolerant species to stray from their typical ranges in search of cooler waters.<\/p>\n

\u201cDue to less food availability, marine predators, like seabirds, can\u2019t find enough food, which leads to decreased body condition, reproductive stress, and increased mortality,\u201d Tammy Russell, a marine ornithologist at Scripps, said in a statement.\u00a0\u201cThe decrease in ecosystem production will disproportionately affect species with constrained diets and\/or distributions. Species unable to shift their diet to other prey or those that can\u2019t travel as far to forage will likely be hit the hardest.\u201d<\/p>\n

During El Ni\u00f1o, some tropical species venture north in response to rising marine temperatures and shifting food availability. That explains why so many unusual creatures have been spotted along California\u2019s coastline in recent weeks.<\/p>\n

Many native species can\u2019t take the heat <\/p>\n

While El Ni\u00f1o makes California\u2019s waters more welcoming to tropical species, native species often suffer.<\/p>\n

In this part of the world, elevated ocean temperatures can decimate kelp forests that provide habitat for numerous species. Scientists at Scripps are already seeing the impact of this super El Ni\u00f1o and marine heatwave on the La Jolla kelp forest off the coast of San Diego.<\/p>\n

\u201cWe have been seeing tremendously warm water, and not seeing a lot of upwelling,\u201d Jennifer Smith, a Scripps professor of marine biology, said<\/a> during an October 7 El Ni\u00f1o briefing. \u201cEven on the bottom\u201450 feet [15 meters] below\u2014the water has been 70 degrees [21 degrees C]. When kelp is exposed to warm water for extended periods of time, it dies. Given the lack of upwelling, there is also no nitrogen and phosphorus, which kelp need to grow, so the ability for kelp to persist under current conditions is significantly reduced.\u201d<\/p>\n

What\u2019s more, heat stress and nutrient loss often shift native fish populations, which can in turn lead to mass die-offs of seabirds. Scores of California seabirds have been starving to death for months now as a result of record-breaking ocean temperatures.<\/p>\n

\u201cWe\u2019ve been seeing cormorants walk to shore and then just die within the hour. I mean one time it happened within 15 minutes, and I\u2019ve never seen that before,\u201d Russell told<\/a> the Associated Press in July. \u201cThat has been heartbreaking for me and we\u2019re seeing this happening across the whole coast.<\/p>\n

California\u2019s waters will grow even warmer as El Ni\u00f1o approaches peak strength. That means more exotic creatures could appear along the coast, and native species will increasingly struggle to cope with their rapidly changing environment. The fallout of this El Ni\u00f1o could offer a glimpse of California\u2019s ecological future in a warming world.<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"Off the coast of California, a historically strong El Ni\u00f1o is unfolding on top of a record-breaking marine…\n","protected":false},"author":2,"featured_media":502562,"comment_status":"","ping_status":"","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[6],"tags":[7,9,8,10648,12960,17284],"class_list":["post-502561","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","has-post-thumbnail","category-california","tag-california","tag-california-headlines","tag-california-news","tag-el-nino","tag-invasive-species","tag-marine-biology"],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-ca\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/502561","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-ca\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-ca\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-ca\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/2"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-ca\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=502561"}],"version-history":[{"count":0,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-ca\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/502561\/revisions"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-ca\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media\/502562"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-ca\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=502561"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-ca\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=502561"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-ca\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=502561"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}