CALIFORNIA GRUNION-- Grunion fish are all about survival, and nature dictates the times in which they spawn during the "run".

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.