FILE: A Spinetail devilray (Mobula mobular) is seen underwater.

On an unseasonably hot October day, a sightseeing catamaran skidded out of Dana Point Harbor and into the open sea. The sky was clear, offering postcard-pretty views of Catalina Island to the west, and the calm, 73-degree water was straight out of a bathtub.

“It's like a lake out here, which is wonderful conditions for sighting these animals,” Amanda McFadden, a naturalist for Captain Dave’s Dana Point Dolphin and Whale Watching Safari, announced to a few dozen passengers. 

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By “these animals,” she was mostly talking about dolphins and whales, which are commonly sighted along this stretch of the Orange County coastline. But there was also a chance of spotting less common creatures that have lately made appearances up and down the Southern California coast due in part to El Niño’s warming effect. And one of those creatures was especially exciting: the devil ray. 

Close cousins to the beloved manta ray, devil rays also look like oversized, winged pancakes with two horn-like appendages out front. Both animals are in the genus mobula, and glide through mostly tropical and subtropical waters. The main difference is their size: giant mantas can span up to 26 feet across, while devils rays range from 3 to 17 feet across, depending on the species. Their mouths are also different: the manta’s faces forward, while the devil ray’s is beneath its head. 

Three species of devil ray have made appearances off Southern California in the last couple of months – spinetail, bentfin and sicklefin (which is also known as the Chilean devil ray, and listed as critically endangered). Spinetails have been spotted the most frequently, and the person who has seen more of them than probably anyone is Carl Sbarounis. 

A Capt. Dave’s catamaran heads out of Dana Point Harbor to look for sea........

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