REGION: Storming the beach: Armed with flashlights and sandals, enthusiasts seek elusive grunion

Armed with flashlights and sandals, enthusiasts seek elusive grunion

By GARY WARTH - Staff Writer | Wednesday, April 9, 2008 1:17 PM PDT ∞

SAN DIEGO ---- Like most of the people gathered in the room Monday night, Makenna Craige had never seen a grunion.

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That's understandable, since she's only 9 years old and grunion runs happen well past her bedtime. It also doesn't help that she lives in landlocked Telluride, Colo., and grunion are unique to the Pacific coast.

Yet there she was, mouth agape and speechless in amazement, as the elusive fish burst to life as fledglings in a little plastic cup she held in her hand.

"Are they getting bigger now?" her grandmother, Sandy Tancredi of Sacramento, asked as she looked over Makenna's shoulder. "They look like little tadpoles."

The seemingly miraculous event was all quite natural and expected for the grunion, a peculiar little fish that routinely captures the attention of nocturnal beachgoers this time of year.

Makenna's cup held sand scooped from a beach where grunion had laid their eggs two weeks earlier, and a little salt water and some shaking was all it took to make them hatch.

But as amazing as it was to make the eggs hatch, it was not what Makenna and her family had come to see. They were there for the lore of an authentic California grunion run, a hit-or-miss phenomenon that can leave beachgoers either amazed or disappointed.

Every other Monday until June 4, the Birch Aquarium at Scripps Institute of Oceanography is offering lectures about grunions and leading beach excursions to watch, with any luck, the fish lay and fertilize eggs in the sand.

"What is a grunion?" asked Scripps educator Chelsea Rochman, leading visitors through a tongue-in-cheek multiple choice quiz. "Is it A, a dance move? B, an elusive fish? Or C, a green onion?"

Despite leading people on by claiming a grunion is a dance move, and then jumping up with other instructors to demonstrate the dance to Jan and Dean's "Surf City," everybody in attendance presumably knew the correct answer.

But surprisingly little is known about the grunion itself, Rochman said.

Despite being one of the most famous fish off the coast ---- it has been immortalized in everything from Charles Bukowski's poems to episodes of "The Beverly Hillbillies" ---- few specifics about its life in the wild are known.

Pepperdine University researchers collect some information by organizing "Grunion Greeters," enthusiasts who keep tabs on the runs and alert cities not to rake and groom beaches where they have seen the fish laying eggs.

Most of what is known about the fish comes from catching or observing them during runs, Rochman said. Grunion, or leuresthes tenuis, are thin, about 5 or 6 inches long, bluish green and related to topsmelt and jacksmelt.

They breed on beaches at high tide during the new moon or full moon, with the female digging her tail into the sand to lay up to 3,000 eggs, which then are fertilized by a male that wraps around her. After a two-week incubation, the eggs hatch on the next high tide.

"Yes, they are holding their breath when they come up, so they don't want to be there for very long," Rochman said.

Before the run, a grunion scout beaches itself to check for conditions. Rochman said grunion like dark, sandy beaches with few rocks. In North County, the beaches behind Jake's in Del Mar and next to the Oceanside Municipal Pier are said to be good locations.

Shovel fish, squid and birds are among the predators that may interfere with the mating, Rochman said. Grunion fishing (yes, they're edible) is banned in April and May, the peak spawning season.

After Monday evening's lectures, Scripps guides led guests on a short walk to La Jolla Shores. Would there be grunion tonight? Nobody knows, the guides told them.

"Oh my God!" a child suddenly said. The call is repeated up and down the beach for several minutes, as flashlights illuminate little slivers of squiggly silver bodies glistening in the sand.

Grunion. Hundreds. Thousands. Who can tell how many? Each wave seems to bring dozens more. They flop on the beach, gasp for air, dig themselves into sand and disappear with the next big wave.

If the uninformed had just stumbled upon the scene, they might be horrified at what looks like countless little fish in distress. But this is the way of the grunion, one of very few ocean fish that spawn on land.

"This is a good one," Scripps educator Corinne Hamill said, smiling at the volume of grunion. "We're very lucky right now."

Makenna was a little overwhelmed.

"I saw them flipping and they kind of scared me," she said. "I didn't know what they were."

Makenna, who had come from Telluride on vacation with her parents, learned about the grunion run during a visit to Birch Aquarium.

"I've never seen anything like this snorkeling or scuba diving," her father, David Craige, said as he shined a light on the fish. "Look! There's a female!"

Children and adults ran with flashlights and cameras into the wet sand to get close views of the flipping fish, often forgetting that as one wave recedes, another is on its way.

"I did NOT like that wave," a little boy grumbled after failing to outrun one.

Gaynell Schenck, a Grunion Greeter collecting information on the night, said runs are categorized by something called the Walker scale, which rates them from W-1 to W-5, according to the number of fish. As the number of fish on the beach increased during the night, Schenck grew more impressed and ultimately deemed the run a W-3.

Educator Stacy Shaut said she saw a rare W-5 last year, a time when the beach was "just covered in silver."

Seeing the relatively smaller but still impressive grunion run Monday was still exciting, she said.

Upcoming grunion lectures and group beach excursions will take place April 21, May 6, May 21 and June 4. Sessions are two hours and begin at either 9:30 p.m. or 10 p.m., and the cost is $12 for adults and $9 for children ages 6 to 13.

For directions and reservations, call the Birch Aquarium at Scripps at (858) 534-3474.

Contact staff writer Gary Warth at (760) 740-5410 or gwarth@nctimes.com.

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