Orcas, Marlin & a Manta Ray at the Tuna Pens: El Niño’s Rare Visitors Off Rosarito

The tuna pens in Mexican waters off Rosarito Beach, Baja California Norte — about 40 miles south of Point Loma Sportfishing — have been lighting up. Boats working that water have been into some really great yellowfin tuna fishing, with a good smattering of dorado mixed in. Those circular pens act like a floating buffet. Bait stacks up, wild tuna and dorado move in, and so do a few visitors you do not expect this close to Southern California.

We were recently aboard the Grande out of H&M Landing in San Diego on a Stoke for Life trip. Wheelchair-bound anglers. Paraplegics. Amputees. Folks who are not letting their disabilities slow them down one bit. That is the heart of what we believe in at Friedman Adventures and Leave No One Indoors: get people on the water, let the ocean do the healing, and watch the smiles. The Grande put them on fish. The crew took care of them. And those anglers fished like anyone else on that rail. That is what this community is supposed to look like.

Then you look over the side and realize the bite is only half the story.

There has been a manta ray hanging around those pens for a while now. Crews keep saying it looks like the same animal. That is not as crazy as it sounds. Giant oceanic mantas (Mobula birostris) can linger at a good feeding spot, and those pens concentrate bait the same way a seamount or a plankton bloom would. What is unusual is seeing one this far north, this consistently, off Rosarito. These animals prefer warm water, generally above about 68 degrees. Their real strongholds in Mexican waters are much farther south — Revillagigedo, Bahía de Banderas, La Paz, the southern Gulf. Southern California and northern Baja sit at the very edge of the documented Pacific range. They show up here when warm water pushes north. They do not live here. That is why a resident-looking manta at the pens is the kind of thing captains talk about all the way back to the dock.

There have been other manta sightings too. Not a fever of them like you see in the Sea of Cortez in May. Just enough reports that you know this is not one lost fish. Warm water is rewriting the map for the summer and fall.

And it is not just rays.

Orcas have been popping up more than usual around Southern California and just south of the border. Earlier this month, San Diego whale watchers documented Eastern Tropical Pacific killer whales — the tropical stock that normally ranges from Southern California down toward Peru — working just off Point Loma and a few miles south of the line. Tall dorsals. Calves. Surface activity. That is a rare ticket this close to home, and it lines up with what the sportfishing fleet is seeing around the pens.

Today the Mission Belle was fishing those same tuna pens and put 33 yellowfin tuna on the boat. While they were on the bite they also saw marlin, orcas, and manta rays. Read that again. Yellowfin. Marlin. Orcas. Mantas. Same piece of water. Same day. Pretty incredible sights so near Southern California.

This is what a strong El Niño looks like when it stacks on top of an already warm ocean. NOAA has El Niño conditions in place now, with a very strong event favored into winter 2026–27. We are still about midway through it. Warm-water fish have already pushed north — yellowfin, dorado, striped marlin, even the odd wahoo. Scientists have said for months we should expect “weird tropical things” in this water: more rays, more pelagics, more surprises. The last big warm stretch (the Blob plus the mid-2010s El Niño) put giant manta rays on the unusual-species list off California. We are watching that movie again, only this time the fleet is sitting on the best local fishing in years while it happens.

So yes — come for the yellowfin and the dorado. Stay for the show. Give those animals room. Do not chase the orcas. Do not crowd the manta. Fish the pens the right way, respect the ranch operations out there, and take the memory home.

If this is only the middle of the El Niño, there is a lot more of this kind of stuff still to come.

Check http://friedmanadventures.com for Captain’s audios, landing and boat counts, bait availability, Friedman Adventures AI, the kids corner, and lots more.

And mark your calendar: Friedman Adventures end-of-summer Surf Fishing Festival, Saturday, September 12, 2026, 9 a.m. to 12 p.m. at Anderson Street and PCH in Sunset Beach. Noon raffle. Park across PCH. Stop by Big Fish Bait & Tackle in Seal Beach on the way.

God bless, tight lines, and leave no one indoors.

— Phil Friedman

Friedman Adventures