Years ago I flew from Los Angeles to La Paz, Mexico, to swim with whale sharks in the Sea of Cortez. That was the closest destination where the planet’s largest shark (and fish) could be found.
Fast forward to September 9, 2026, when a whale shark was spotted off Southern California between Santa Barbara Island and Malibu – hundreds of miles north of its typical range.
The accompanying footage is courtesy of spotter pilot Carl Sbarounis, who credited Ryder DeVoe for the sighting.
Sbarounis estimated the whale shark to measure 14-16 feet, on the small side for plankton-eating giants that can measure 40-plus feet.
Their typical range includes tropical and warm-temperate waters in the Atlantic, Pacific, and Indian Oceans.
Whale sharks are exceedingly
rare off Southern California, but Sbarounis spotted one near Santa Catalina Island in September 2022.
His latest sighting comes amid reports of other tropical visitors to Southern California waters, including hammerhead sharks, devil rays, and giant manta rays.
Water temperatures off Southern California have approached 80 degrees in some areas, a phenomenon that many are attributing to an intensifying "Super" El Niño at the equator.
Some experts, including Chris Lowe of the CSULB Shark Lab, have anticipated the arrival of whale sharks since mid-summer.
This article originally appeared on For The Win: World’s largest shark the latest exotic visitor to Southern California
