Cindy Belkowiche, director of the Pennington Marine Science Center on Catalina Island, is deeply familiar with the island’s native sea life. She regularly goes scuba diving in its chilly Southern California waters and observes the local fish, sharks and sea cucumbers.
So the other day, when she heard that a group of divers had spotted a long-spine porcupinefish off the coast of the island, she was taken aback. The species is typically only found in warm, tropical waters — so what was the fish doing at Catalina Island?
Belkowiche quickly pieced together that the fish had likely traveled out of his usual range because of El Niño. Right now, the El Niño climate pattern is bringing warmer-than-average ocean temperatures to Southern California.
Belkowiche decided that she wanted to see the porcupinefish for herself, so she set out on a dive. Fifteen minutes into the dive, she hadn’t spotted any sign of the animal and was starting to think she’d never get to see him.
“[W]hen I started giving up hope, all of a sudden I look down, and I see this little football swimming around, and my coworker, Sophie, and I just start screaming underwater,” Belkowiche said.
The divers watched in awe as the little fish swam around, seemingly unbothered by their presence. At one point, he even swam right up to Belkowiche’s camera and bumped into it.
“[W]e all gathered around this little long-spine porcupine fish and stuck with him for maybe at least 10 minutes,” Belkowiche said. “He just kind of hunkered down on the sand, and he was doing his own little thing, kind of hopping between the little algae clumps.”
Belkowiche suspects that the porcupinefish swam up from Baja California, Mexico, which is typically the upper limit of the species’ range. In addition to the porcupinefish, Belkowiche and her colleagues have spotted several other unusual species in the area as well.
“There’s been a couple hammerhead shark sightings on the island, spinetail devil rays,” Belkowiche said. “We’ve been having quite a few sea turtles out here.”
As of right now, it seems like these species are just passing through rather than making their home in the waters surrounding the island. But only time will tell where the porcupinefish and other animals will end up, so for now, Belkowiche is just basking in the memory of the special encounter.
“That’s probably one of the most unique species I’ve encountered out here, and it soon turned into one of my favorite dives just because of that little guy,” Belkowiche said.
