Endangered devil rays and a juvenile whale shark are turning up in waters off Newport Beach as El Niño pushes sea surface temperatures near 80 degrees.

Commercial fisherman and aerial spotter Carl Sbarounis captured footage of a rare bentfin devil ray and endangered spinetail devil rays off Newport Beach in recent days, ABC7 reported Saturday, Sept. 12. Sbarounis also spotted a lone whale shark, estimated at 14 to 16 feet long, cruising between Santa Barbara Island and Malibu on Wednesday, Sept. 9.

Sbarounis told ABC7 he kept encountering different species as he moved through the area, including one ray that was pure black. He said the whale shark sighting was the farthest north he had ever seen one, noting his only previous sightings were near Catalina and San Clemente Island.

Sbarounis reported seeing hundreds or thousands of giant rays moving between San Diego and Catalina during the same stretch, including rays with wingspans of about 10 feet off Orange County, according to Hoodline.

The sightings are unusual. Sicklefin devil rays prefer tropical water and are rarely seen this far north. A fisherman with decades of experience told ABC7 he knows of only two or three sightings in Southern California in the past 15 to 20 years.

Spearfisher Juan-Carlos Aguilar encountered a school of sicklefin devil rays, each about seven feet wide, off Catalina Island. He described the moment to ABC7: "These rays, gigantic, about seven feet wide, just materialized to my right. And I literally jumped back."

Aguilar, who has been diving for 25 years, called the 10-second encounter something that will live in his mind forever.

Southern California coastal temperatures are running 3 to 5 degrees above average, according to National Oceanic and Atmospheric Administration (NOAA) data cited by Hoodline. The warming trend has also drawn hammerhead sharks closer to shore. Nature photographer Mark Girardeau documented a hammerhead roughly a mile off Laguna Beach in late August from a Newport Coastal Adventure Charter, noting ocean temperatures of 77 degrees at the time, according to Laguna Beach Patch.

Whale sharks are the world's largest fish and can grow to about 61 feet. They filter-feed on plankton and pose no threat to swimmers.

Nate Jaros, vice president of animal care at the Aquarium of the Pacific in Long Beach, expects the unusual visitors to stick around through September and into early October before subtropical species follow cooling water back south.