Overview
- Commercial fish spotter Carl Sbarounis photographed and filmed a whale shark roughly 30 miles off the coast between Malibu and Santa Barbara Island and estimated it at 14 to 16 feet long.
- Sbarounis also documented groups of rays in the same area, including tan-brown manta rays and gray spinetail (devil) rays that are normally found in warmer tropical waters.
- Scientists say the sightings are linked to unusually warm sea temperatures caused by a year-long marine heat wave and a NOAA forecast that gives about a 75% chance of a strong El Niño this winter.
- Whale sharks are filter feeders that eat plankton, have very small teeth, and are not considered dangerous to people, so the sighting poses little direct risk to swimmers or boaters.
- Researchers expect many tropical visitors to move back south as surface waters cool, but they say repeated unusual sightings this season — including hammerheads and large bluefin tuna — show how warming can temporarily reshape local marine life.