Grunions

Last night I went on a grunion run by the Santa Monica pier. Grunions are little silver fish found only in southern California and Baja California.

They have a unique way of mating -- they spawn completely out of water, laying their eggs in the sand during high tide. The females come first and lay the egg then the males fertilize them. You are allowed to catch them only with your bare hands, but not during the closed season of April and May.

I knew nothing about grunions before tonight, but a friend who is a certified grunion greeter organized an outing so I decided to join. The peak time for observation was between 10:15pm-12:15am, perfect for my night owl schedule. Unfortunately, the grunions weren't active on our strip of sand. I didn't see it but there was apparently one grunion that came out to scout; alas, a seagull snapped it up. We asked Gwen if it would help if we scared the birds away, and when she said it might, my friend Mary took it upon herself to run over to the birds to shoo them away. (I should note that I would have done likewise had I not been so lazy.) Unfortunately at one point, there was a huge flock of birds on land, and a number of them took flight. But since there weren't any grunions anyway, a grunion massacre was averted.

Even though I didn't see any grunions, there are worse things than a night time stroll on the beach. And I'll get another chance May 26.