The wiggly little grunion wash up with the waves and cover the sand, a mating ritual unique to their fish species – a nighttime spawning act that only happens at California beaches.
“They are just mysterious and beautiful, and there’s so much we don’t know,” said Karen Martin, a Pepperdine University expert who has studied the curious creatures for more than 25 years. “It’s fun to contemplate them.”
Martin, along with retired State Parks ranger Jim Serpa, will lead a Grunion Run night starting at 8 p.m. on May 13 at Doheny State Beach, a gathering that will start with an educational talk followed by participants hanging out by the shoreline starting at about 9:45 p.m., waiting for the fish to arrive.
Sometimes the grunion show, and the reward is watching a National Geographic-like scene on the sand, an odd sight as the fish mate at high tide, the eggs put in a hole, where they sit for about 10 days until the next high tide brings waves to shake them up enough to hatch and the babies making their way out to sea.
“It is quite unique. It’s probably the only fish that incubates fully out of water and has an environmentally queued hatching process,” Martin said, describing how the turbulent waters help hatch the critters.
Serpa, who ran a grunion program at Doheny State Beach for 22 years, from 1992 to 2013 when he retired, will mimic the action on land with eggs from the last grunion run a few weeks ago. He will show how shaking the eggs releases the fish before taking them out to sea.
Two weeks ago, Serpa went to Doheny to see the grunion run that was supposed to be just after high tide at about 10:30 p.m. He waited and waited, he said, and was just about to leave just after midnight, when he noticed the birds start going crazy, flocking to the shore.
So he waited a few more minutes and a wave washed up thousands of the grunion, flopping around on the sand, the birds plucking some up for a feast.
A couple on the sand visiting from Utah marveled at the unexpected sight, he said.
“They were going nuts, giggling and screaming,” he said, giving them an impromptu science lesson on the sand as he told them all about the creatures.
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What makes it even more special is that it only happens here, though there is a closely related subspecies in Baja that does the same thing, but in daytime hours.
Martin runs a citizen scientist program called Grunion Greeter where surveyors go out and report on population numbers. Watching the grunion – and the anticipation waiting for them to show up – never gets old, she said.
“I am never tired of it. There are times when you go out in the middle of the night and they don’t show up. That’s because they are wild creatures looking out for their schedules, not ours,” she added. “I’ve never complained about waiting on the beach.”
Did you know?
Each female lays 2,000 to 3,000 eggs. They have a short life — only about five years — and grow to be about 6 inches long. The females bury themselves up to the fins, deposit their eggs and then the males deposit the milt. When the wave comes by, the sand closes the hole. The eggs stay buried in the sand for 10 to 14 days.
Try not to put light on the water before the fish run, it may spook the scouts.
She first got her first glimpse of the grunion during a Boy Scout outing when her son was young, she said. The intrigue about this fish out of water still, decades later, intrigues her.
“Any animal that is not where you expect it to be is really fascinating,” she said. “It just gets under your skin, what else are they doing that we don’t know about?”
Part of the unknown this season is also whether the grunion are being impacted by the toxic algae bloom that has caused a deadly domoic acid outbreak among sea creatures that eat the poisoned algae. The California Department of Fish and Wildlife on May 9 announced a restriction on taking sardines due to elevated levels of domoic acid.
A male grunion wraps around a female to release sperm as she lays thousands of eggs during the highest of tides at Doheny State Beach. (File photo: Rose Palmisano / The Orange County Register)Martin said she has sent grunion samples to the public health department for testing because they eat the same algae as anchovies and sardines — the little fish then make up the diet of sea lions and dolphins, which is causing stranding and sickness among the marine mammals.
“I do personally think the fish are affected by it, I do see some unusual strandings during harmful blooms and strange behaviors,” Martin said of the grunion.
Testing that comes back, however, shows amounts that are lower than dangerous for human health, she said.
“It’s probably not going to harm you, but if there’s any question in your mind, this is probably not the best thing to have for food when there’s so many other things out there,” she said.
Grunion, at least through June, are off limits anyhow. The state sets no-take periods during the grunion running season aimed at helping the species rebound. During July and August, people are allowed to take them, but only if caught by hand and there is a limit of 30. Anyone over 16 needs a fishing license.
“They can replenish their stocks pretty well if given the chance,” Serpa said. “Let’s protect them.”
More about Grunion runs
The state Fish and Wildlife department posts expected grunion run times and more information at wildlife.ca.gov/Fishing/Ocean/Grunion.
Here are times for the rest of this month, the season goes until August.
• May 12: 9:25 p.m. – 11:25 p.m.
• May 13: 9:50 p.m. – 11:50 p.m.
• May 14: 10:20 p.m. – 12:20 a.m.
• May 15: 10:55 p.m. – 12:55 a.m.
• May 26: 9:05 p.m. – 11:05 p.m.
• May 27: 9:50 p.m. – 11:50 p.m.
• May 28: 10:35 p.m. – 12:35 a.m.
• May 29: 11:25 p.m. – 1:25 a.m.
The times reflect a probable two-hour window for spawing; the second hour is usually better. The best runs normally occur on the second and third nights of a four-night period.
This schedule predicts grunion runs at Cabrillo Beach near the Los Angeles Harbor entrance. The timing varies along the coast, for example, San Diego runs occur about 5 minutes earlier and Santa Barbara runs occur about 25 minutes.
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