Warm Water Brings Some Spectacular Visitors Into the Frame
One remarkable thing to emerge from the current El Niño is the parade of marine life moving through Southern California’s unusually warm waters. Over just a few days, aerial photographer and pilot Carl Sbarounis (@airpilikia) shared footage of a whale shark, a great white shark near Anacapa Island and a group of spinetail devil rays—three encounters that make the Pacific off our coast look downright tropical. More of his Southern California aerial photography can be found through his Airpilikia photo gallery.
The timing is not imagined. NOAA reported on September 10 that El Niño is strengthening, with a greater than 90 percent chance of a very strong event during fall and winter 2026–27. Warmer water can shift where marine species and their prey appear, although no single sighting proves why an individual animal traveled into a particular patch of ocean.
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Whale Shark Spotted Between Santa Barbara Island and Malibu
Sbarounis says @ryderdevoe found the estimated 14-to-16-foot whale shark on September 9, 2026, and that he flew over to record the visitor from above.
Whale sharks are the biggest fish on Earth, but this one is all glide and no movie-monster theatrics. Seen from the air, its spotted body moves below the surface like a constellation that decided to go swimming. The animal’s presence between Santa Barbara Island and Malibu is exactly the kind of sighting that makes even lifelong Angelenos look at the Pacific differently.
Where whale sharks usually call home: tropical and warm-temperate seas around the world, except the Mediterranean. They travel through both coastal and open water, often following dense plankton, fish-spawning events and seasonal changes in ocean temperature. Southern California is not outside their possible range, but an appearance this far north remains a headline-making warm-water surprise.
“Rare species are cruising through our SoCal waters.”
Carl Sbarounis (@airpilikia), Instagram caption
As thrilling as the footage is, the real flex is letting these animals remain wild. They are not visiting an aquatic theme park created for us; they are moving through habitat that was theirs long before anybody sent up a camera.
A 16-Foot Great White Circles Southeast of Anacapa Island
In the second aerial reel, Sbarounis captures a roughly 16-foot great white about 12 miles southeast of Anacapa Island on September 9. The dramatic overhead view shows the massive shark moving alone through open blue water.
“16ft Great White about 12 miles southeast of Anacapa island.”
Carl Sbarounis (@airpilikia), Instagram caption
The scale is the story: a great white moving through open blue water with nothing around it to shrink the moment into something ordinary. It is beautiful, a little unnerving and absolutely none of our business—in the best possible way.
Where great white sharks usually call home: great whites occupy temperate and subtropical seas worldwide, and California is absolutely part of their neighborhood—juvenile nursery areas sit in Southern California’s near-shore waters. So unlike the whale shark, this giant silhouette is not automatically an El Niño tourist.
Spinetail Devil Rays Glide Through Southern California Waters
Sbarounis identifies the group as spinetail devil rays and places similar sightings near the 209 spot and the La Jolla Canyon area. His description also delivers the story’s winning line: “On their way to dinner with their bowties!”
The third encounter changes the mood completely. Instead of one enormous silhouette, several rays move together beneath the aircraft, their pointed wings giving them the appearance of “formal little creatures late to a very important dinner.”
Where spinetail devil rays usually call home: warm offshore waters across the eastern Pacific, with research identifying important habitat around the Gulf of California and stronger tropical hotspots near the Costa Rica Dome, the Galápagos and coastal Peru. A Southern California sighting puts these bow-tied travelers well north of their best-known eastern Pacific strongholds.
These three visitors are a reminder that the ocean does most of its work beyond our sight, which makes it dangerously easy to take for granted. The Pacific is not empty blue space beyond the coastline—it is a living system that regulates climate, feeds communities and carries entire worlds beneath the surface.
Protecting the ocean means protecting the life moving through it, from familiar locals to rare warm-water arrivals. Cleaner water, less plastic, responsible distance and better stewardship are not abstract environmental talking points; they are how we help make sure the next breathtaking silhouette still has a wild place to pass through. The coast may belong to all of us, but the water is their home.
Sources: Carl Sbarounis’s @airpilikia Instagram and Airpilikia photo gallery; his whale-shark reel, great-white reel and devil-ray reel; NOAA Climate Prediction Center; Bureau of Ocean Energy Management; NOAA Fisheries: White Shark; and PLOS ONE.
