El Nino Brings Unexpected Fish from Mexico to US Faiza Elmasry - VOA News
go to original December 21, 2015

El Nino Brings Unexpected Fish from Mexico to California (VOA News)

Fish in an unexpected spectrum of sizes, shapes and colors are moving north, through El Niño's warm currents from Mexican waters to the Pacific Ocean off California’s coast. El Nino is the periodic warming of the eastern and central Pacific Ocean. This phenomenon thrills scientists and gives anglers the chance of a once-in-a-lifetime big catch.

Thanks to El Niño, California's coastal waters have become more hospitable to fish from the tropics. Hammerhead sharks are among them.

“For over a year now, a lot of warm water fishes that we don't usually see have been coming up," said Rick Feeney, fish expert from the Natural History Museum of Los Angeles County.

The arrival of large numbers of big fish like wahoo and tuna has also invigorated California's saltwater sport fishing industry, which generates an estimated $1.8 billion a year.

"All the sport fish from Mexico are coming up here. In fact, there's probably more sport fish up here than there are down at the tip of Baja where they usually are. Things like marlin, yellowtail, wahoo, yellow fin tuna, blue fin tuna, all sorts of things that fishermen love to catch," said Feeney.

But southern California’s warmer waters are forcing out other species that local wildlife depend on.

Read the rest at VOA News

We invite you to add your charity or supporting organizations' news stories and coming events to PVAngels so we can share them with the world. Do it now!