When it's a full or new moon in the
spring and summer months from March to
August (and sometimes in February and
September,) this is the time when
grunion, a small fish, does its "run".
The run is actually a natural process of
nature which involves moving out of the
water and onto the beach where the adult
female fish lays her eggs in the sand.
For four consecutive nights after
high tides the spawning begins and
continues for several hours (usually
about 2 hours). The female
arches her body and excavates the
semi-fluid sand with her tail to create
a nest. She does more of a dance than a
run at this point, twisting her body and
digging into the sand until she is half
buried, with her head sticking up. She
then deposits a whopping 1,600 to 3,600
eggs during one spawn. These tiny eggs
sink and settle into her cozy nest she
creates. The "man" fish or
male curves around the female and
releases milt which flows down the
female's body to the fertilizes the
eggs. As many as eight males may
fertilize the eggs in a single nest.
After spawning, the male goes back in
the water, lickety split, while
the female hangs around a little longer
where she twists free and returns with
the next wave. It is a tidy, fast
process taking only 30 seconds. When the
female takes longer to wiggle out of the
hole she creates, the human
hunters have better chance of catching
her as she waits for the next tide to
come along and wash her back into the
ocean home once again.
Mature female grunion can
spawn during successive runs up to six
times each season. The bigger the
female, the more eggs.
It seems hardly possible that the eggs
wouldn't be washed away into the ocean,
but that's where the spawning schedule
comes into play. Nature's perfect plan
assures that grunion spawn during the
highest tides of the month so that the
eggs can incubate in the sand during
lower tides. Undisturbed by wave action,
yet comfortably moist by water in the
sand, they hatch about 10 days later
during the next high tide event.
As the ocean washes to shore in the high
tide, the fish are loosened and swim
merrily into their water world and new
life.
