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.
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