A nature photographer aboard a Newport Beach whale-watching boat documented a hammerhead shark swimming about a mile off the Laguna Beach coastline on Aug. 24.

Mark Girardeau, a nature photographer who works with Newport Coastal Adventure Charter, captured the encounter and posted video to Facebook. It was the first hammerhead he has documented in Orange County waters since 2015, he told Patch.

"The ocean temperature here is 77 degrees, which is the warmest I've ever see the ocean," Girardeau said. "This goes along with why we're experiencing such hot and humid weather the last several weeks as well."

Girardeau attributed the shark's appearance to this year's El Niño summer, which has pushed unusually warm water into Southern California. Other hammerhead sightings have been reported in Malibu and Santa Barbara this summer, according to ABC7.

Shark researchers predicted warm-water visitors

The sighting lines up with what scientists predicted months ago. In May, Cal State Long Beach Shark Lab Director Chris Lowe told the Orange County Register that El Niño-driven warm water could bring species like smooth hammerheads, tiger sharks and bull sharks to the region.

"These are species that we are not used to; they follow the warm water up," Lowe said in May.

Lowe noted that a decade ago, a marine heat wave called "the Blob" combined with an El Niño to keep great white sharks lingering in local waters far longer than usual. Lowe and other researchers had forecast similar conditions for summer 2026.

Record ocean temperatures

The hammerhead appeared two days after scientists recorded the highest global average sea-surface temperature ever measured. Europe's Copernicus Earth observation agency logged a record 70 degrees Fahrenheit on Saturday, Aug. 22, the Los Angeles Times reported.

The warm conditions are not just drawing sharks. Bolsa Chica State Beach and Huntington State Beach have reported more than 3,100 stingray incidents so far in 2026, double the number recorded during all of 2025, Patch reported.