Word: grunion
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When the summer moon is full and the tide is high, the grunion run in Southern California. The grunion (rhymes with bunion) are small (6-in.), smelt-like fish. Unique among marine life, they ride the surf onto sandy beaches, there to spawn and quickly go away again. The female dances on her tail, drilling a hole into the sand for her eggs, while the male flops wildly about her. The next full breaker covers the roe with sand, washes the grunion back...
Last week the grunion were running in full flow, and Southern Californians, as usual, were there to greet and catch them. Tide and moon tables were posted on the desk of many a businessman. On proper nights, autos jammed the highway from Malibu to Santa Monica; beach fires crackled from Long Beach to San Diego. As usual, some of the grunion hunters cuddled in the shadows, glad to forget the original purpose of their parties. But those who kept their minds on grunion splashed madly through the surf, snagging the slippery fish with their bare hands (nets are illegal). Since...
...Reporter Miller interviews famous transients ("Slim" Lindbergh, Herbert Hoover, Babe Ruth et al.), how the silvery grunion come out of the sea with the spring tides to dance on their tails on the beach (TIME, May 9) are among other waterfront marvels. One moonlit night, when he was lying on a solitary beach, a baby sea lion came and nestled beside him for warmth and company. An hour they lay, then Reporter Miller trudged off to work, followed by the baby sea lion's lustrous, wondering eyes...
Familiar to residents of southern California is the grunion, or sand-smelt (Athenmdae), a little fish that comes out on the beach at high tide, stands on its tail and dances in the moonlight. But few Cahfornians have inquired into the reason tor this strange nocturnal dance. In the May issue of Field & Stream, Fisherman Neil Frost described a grunion run, explained the dance...
...grunion come out on the beaches to spawn. . . . After the female fish has been washed up with a high wave she buries her tail in sand that is light and all but dry. In this position she lays her eggs. The male lies arched beside her ready to fertilize the eggs. It is when the females are struggling to extricate themselves from their half-buried positions that they seem to 'stand on their tails and dance to the rhythm of the surf...