A 70 lb Opah, Lampris regius, was caught recently by a local party boat. I think too much is being made of opah landings as ENSO indicators as this species follows "warm" currents throughout the temperate and subtropical Pacific. Other more unusual sightings are more significant: blue sharks closer to our shores, albacore two miles to shore as opposed to the expected 40 miles, numerous sightings of Orcas, more frequent leatherback turtle sightings. I would like to confirm the early pulse of Sacramento River Fall Run Chinook returning unusually early (6-8 weeks). This was confirmed today by a colleague at the Cal Dept of Water Resources. However until the full run is accounted for over time we won't know the significance of the early numbers. Without question the seas are very warm: we are averaging 16-18 degrees C. Normally we could expect an average around 12-14 with the occasional drop to 10. We have heard of sea surface temps as high as 20 close to shore but I can't confirm this. Last night at 7:30 I took a swim in the cove on the Lab's property and I was sweating in my wet suit. There was a juvenile young-of-the-year gray whale in the cove which is unusual for this time of year. I wanted to see if there was an out-of-season bloom of some prey item like one of the larger crustaceans but the I didn't see anything out of the ordinary other than unusually dense phytoplankton.--Paul Siri <pasiri@ucdavis.edu>