When grunion don’t run

Kris O’Donnell

They weren’t running.

Despite a welcome of flashlights and buckets, the California

grunion did not appear on the beach early Friday morning.

“We’ve been here since 11 p.m. and we haven’t see one,” said

Joanne Olander of Rancho Cucamonga, who was with her daughter Sarah.

Though many hopefuls were out, the fish, which look like sardines,

apparently decided it wasn’t the right time to spawn. Still, there

will be other chances this month.

“The best place to see them is between 61st and 68th streets in

Newport Beach,” said Mark Herman of the Newport Beach Lifeguard Assn.

“You want to find an area that is relatively flat.”

Grunion are the object of a unusual, albeit seasonal, recreational

fishing activity. Their spawning behavior is so remarkable that it

evokes an “I don’t believe it” response from someone who hears about

it for the first time.

The unpredictability of the spawning run, however, is one of the

twists of nature.

“I caught a lot at Huntington Beach last night. There were a lot

of people there,” Jacky Nguyen of Garden Grove said. “We got there

about 11 p.m.”

The California grunion are small slender fish with bluish green

backs, silvery sides and bellies. Most grunion seen on southland

beaches are between five and six inches long. The fish are only found

along the coast of southern California and northern Baja California.

Early Spanish settlers called this fish grunion, which means

grunter, as grunion make a faint squeaking noise while spawning.

Shortly after high tide, on certain nights, sections of beaches

sometimes are covered with thousands of grunion depositing their eggs

in the sand.

Spawning runs normally start about 20 minutes after the first fish

appear on the beach. Typically, a run lasts 1 to 3 hours, but the

number of fish on the beach at any given moment can vary from none to

thousands.

Spawning begins after high tide and continues for several hours.

As a wave breaks on the beach, grunion swim as far up the slope as

possible.

The female then digs out a nest and half buries herself in the

sand, with her head sticking up. She deposits her eggs, which

surrounding males then fertilize. As many as eight males may

fertilize the eggs in a nest.

After spawning, the males immediately retreat toward the water,

while the female twists free and returns with the next wave. While

spawning may take only 30 seconds, some fish remain stranded on the

beach for several minutes.

Since these fish must leave the water to deposit their eggs, they

can be picked up while they are briefly stranded.

Spawning occurs from March through August, and occasionally in

February and September. Peak spawning period is between late March

and early June.

Grunion leave the water at night to spawn on the beach in the

spring and summer months two to six nights after the full and new

moons, according to the California Department of Fish and Game.

Peak activity occurs about an hour after the start of the run and

lasts from 30 to 60 minutes. After the tide has dropped a foot or

more, the run slackens and then stops as suddenly as it started.

The eggs incubate in the warm sand and hatch approximately 15 days

later during the high tides. Grunion live to 3 years of age.

The life history of grunion while at sea is not well known, but

the fish apparently spend most of their life close to shore in water

15 to 40 feet deep.

To capture grunion, a fishing license is required for all persons

16 years and older. Sport fishers must only use their hands to take

grunion. No appliances of any kind may be used, and no holes may be

dug in the beach to trap them. There is no limit on the catch.

The grunions are expected to run again early during the mornings

of Aug. 13 through 16.

For more information, call the Newport Beach Lifeguard Assn. at

(949) 644-3047 or go online at www.newportlifeguard.org.