Giant Squid? A Whale in Malibu? Local Ocean Wildlife Making Headlines this Week

With mountain lions, bears, coyotes and bobcats as parts of the daily Southern California life, it's easy to forget the ocean is a bounty of wildlife. This week, a few interesting stories have surfaced.

The most recent is the baby gray whale hanging out at the Malibu pier. First spotted Tuesday morning, the little guy has been playfully swimming around and popping his head out. "Although whales frequently travel through Malibu, they rarely make extended stopovers," noted the LA Times.

Over the weekend, an unusual amount of giant squid appeared off the coast of Orange County. “We haven’t seen this many jumbo squid at one time in about three years," Chris Cunningham, manager of Davey’s Locker Sportfishing on the Balboa Peninsula, told Sciencedude Gary Robbins at the OC Register. Hundreds were caught by fisherman this weekend and there's no telling when the squid will leave the area.

Also in Orange County, an unidentified man seen pulling a huge black sea bass to shore in early January on various YouTube videos has been recommended for prosecution by the California Department of Fish and Game. The fish is a protected species. Earlier, investigators thought the man was trying to bring it to shore in order to release it from a line and hook, but as more videos appeared, the opposite was suspected. One of the videos can be seen below.