California’s Waters Have Never Looked Like This Before

California's waters have never been seen quite like this before. Ichthyologists, or fish experts, are in awe as whale sharks and giant manta rays are spotted farther north than ever before. Sport fishermen are reeling in wahoo and blue marlin off the coast of San Diego, areas they would normally have to travel to Baja for. Even the piers of Southern California are attracting a rainbow of reef fish from hundreds of miles away.

Biologists and researchers are baffled by the balmy waters, a direct result of the strong El Niño. This is the most profound movement of tropical fish into California that anyone has ever seen, according to Milton Love, a research biologist at UC Santa Barbara's Marine Science Institute. The warm waters are essentially importing a whole ecosystem from Mexico.

Owyn Snodgrass, a NOAA Fisheries research biologist, can see the Scripps Pier in La Jolla through his office window. He notes that the water temperature has reached 75 degrees, 11 degrees warmer than the daily average and the warmest November 3 ever recorded. Scientists are working to verify and document the species among the tropical immigrants, finding about 10 new species so far.

A fisherman on the Venice Pier in Los Angeles pulled up an 11-inch longfin bigeye tuna, typically found hundreds of miles away. Bluefin tuna, usually found in warmer waters, have also been caught, breaking the previous California record. While many of the smaller reef fish are expected to die off once the warm waters subside, some could potentially establish a foothold in California.

Tropical species that have made it this far north include the longfin bigeye tuna and triggerfish, which were last seen in California during a 1983 El Niño. As ocean temperatures continue to rise, more tropical fish may find new homes along the Californian coast. However, this influx of warm water also poses threats to familiar life forms, such as kelp forests and sea otters, which rely on these habitats.