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2005 Grunion Run

Background:

A few weeks ago, we (the entertainment staff) found an event listing which would allow us to take part in the Grunion Greeter 2005 Project. This project is a partnership between Pepperdine University and the Birch Aquarium at Scripps where volunteers study the spawning activity and habitat of the grunion. Grunion Greeters observe small stretches of beach on nights of grunion runs during peak spawning season from April - early June. Grunion runs occur at night twice a month after the highest tides associated with a full or new moon. Greeters submit their observations via an interactive website: www.grunion.org or a "hotline" phone number. This project will contribute to a new three year study to test whether grunion may be useful as environmental indicators on sandy beaches in Southern California.

Grunion Log: 11 April 2005

We arrived at Mission Beach between El Carmel and San Rafael around 11:15 p.m. Not knowing what to expect, we walked out to the shoreline between lifeguard towers #18 and #19. We immediately saw some grunion on the beach (but only a few). This was surprising because when Victoria was younger, her parents would take her to see the grunion and she never actually saw any fish. This was not the case, however, on this night. As we walked further down the beach, we saw more grunion spawning activity. This made us pretty excited so we pointed our flashlights directly at them. Future tip: Don't do that. Grunion are very responsive to light and noise, so our excited flashlights effectively scared them away.

Once we figured that out and put away the flashlights, we saw as many as 50 in one small area of the beach, and 100-500 total spawning in different areas of the beach. Both of us agreed that the event was "pretty cool" and we would definitely take part in a grunion run again, even if we weren't Grunion Greeters.

We hope that some of you will take part in this exciting event, so grab some flip flops, a thermos of hot chocolate, and watch some grunion sometime soon!

Remember, April and May are closed season months, which means observation only, and grunion cannot be removed from the beach.

Grunion Log: 27 April 2005

In our second observation, we decided to venture out a little farther and chose Del Mar City Beach as our location. What a disappointment! When we arrived, the weather had turned overcast, so the beach was very dark and it was difficult to see any fish...that would be if there were actually fish there. As we walked down the length of the beach, Victoria and I saw a few people out to see the grunion, and they said to us "let us know if you find any!" For the first hour, we saw ONE fish, flopping on the sand. We waited another 45 minutes, hoping that perhaps the grunion were lost, but did not see any other fish. Finally, as we were walking back to the car, we saw a few fish, but no spawning.

We have determined that there were many factors that may have contributed to the lack of grunion on that beach, including the bad weather, the slant of the shoreline, the absence of moonlight and the presence of predators (there were lots of birds that night). In all, we would not go back to Del Mar, and had a much more enjoyable experience in Mission Beach.

Grunion Log: 8 June 2005

The last grunion run of the program. After last time, Victoria and I hoped that we would see tons and tons of fish. Apparently the other grunion runs in May (which we were unable to attend) were spectacular, which only made us anticipate this run even more. As we stepped out onto the beach between Grand and Law in Pacific Beach, we scanned the shoreline for any sightings of fish. To our amazement, there were already hundreds of grunion spanning across the shore.

This time, we had (human) company, as many groups of greeters and visitors had gotten lucky and all met up at the same stretch of beach. We were happy that so many people were sharing this experience with us, however, this run was the first time that we witnessed instances of poaching. It seemed that the location drew more loud, rowdy observers since it was relatively close to several bars in the area. We witnessed two individuals splashing in the waves, and then stuffing their pockets with grunion. We were unsure if they each had fishing licenses, but they did use their hands to pick up the grunion instead of nets or things of that sort. Victoria and I tried to pick up some of the grunion for photos (see photo album) but we could not hold them for more than a second or two (slippery little guys and gals).

Overall, both of us had an incredible experience as grunion greeters. Neither of us had ever seen the grunion, so even the run with only a few fish was interesting. We would like to thank the Pepperdine-based Grunion Greeter program, Dr. Karen Martin, and special thanks to Melissa Studer, who coordinated the greeters for each location in San Diego. Grunion season extends into August, so there is still time to make it to a run if you haven't yet. If you are interested in participating in the Grunion Greeter program in 2008 , please visit www.grunion.org for more information. That's it for us, Grunion Greeters - out.

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