A olive ridley sea turtle near Seal Beach, California. NOAA
A powerful El Niño is delivering unusually warm waters to the California coast, and with them, an array of tropical sea creatures rarely seen there.
These include flying fish, manta rays, and a venomous yellow-bellied sea snake, a species not seen in the state since the 2015 El Niño, Reuters reports. Meanwhile, anglers have landed yellowfin tuna, wahoo, and dorado, unusual catches in the typically cool waters off of California.
The summer saw a spate of great white shark sightings, and more recently, fishers have spotted hammerhead sharks and whale sharks. Whale sharks “do come through when the water is warm,” fisherman Carl Sbarounis told the Los Angeles Times, “mostly during El Niño.”
For the first time ever, scientists have recorded nesting sea turtles in California, near Seal Beach and in Huntington Beach. If their eggs hatch, the baby turtles “will likely one day return to nest to carry on future generations on these very same beaches,” said Jeff Flocken, president of the Aquarium of the Pacific in Long Beach. The aquarium began housing roughly 200 sea turtle eggs in September to protect them from a rare tropical storm.
During El Niño, warm waters pool in the eastern Pacific, fueling more heat waves and extreme weather around the world. The effect is especially pronounced in California, which is seeing exceptionally warm waters and unusually high sea levels. Scientists expect this year’s El Niño to be the strongest in living memory.
But while warming is driving exotic creatures to California shores, it is also playing havoc with native sea life. The added heat is spurring one of the largest algal blooms in history, which now stretches from Southern California to the coast of British Columbia. Dead and dying pelicans, loons, and grebes are turning up on Southern California beaches. And kelp forests, which are still recovering from recent marine heat waves, could be decimated by El Niño, experts warn.
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