"Have a little faith, there's magic in the night..." - Bruce Springsteen
It's Closed Season (except for photos)
With great delight, more than 325 trained Grunion Greeters from Imperial Beach to Ventura saw our silver surfers return to the shoreline. Greeter Tammy B. saw "fish covering sand, with intensity greatest at 11:15p, still going strong at 11:40p." Greeter Donna S. reported a "Fabulous run started with groups of 50-80, escalating to 1000s up and down beach." Steve T. "It was awesome, amazing and beautiful! At 11 pm it went from W2 to W4 in 30 minutes or so." Ann G. saw "W-5 over large area, eggs all over beach."
Carla enjoys the run, photo by S. Ebner (click to enlarge)
Greeter Steve E. notes "Another group of greeters were there as well. They left at about 11:30 congratulating us for seeing a W-3 event our first time out and informing us that this would go on for about 45 minutes total. The only thing is that it kept getting better, and was still not done an hour after it started. At the peak it was a W-4 to W-5, and the peak didn't come until about 12:00. Tens of thousands of fish or more."
A beautiful grunion run in the surf, photo by M. Winter (click to enlarge)
Let’s ask the experts: These experienced Greeters have been watching their particular beach consistently over time. Greeter Bill B. reports: "Most we’ve seen in 6 years! Fish for 2 hours. The extent was endless, probably W-4." Greeter Patrick W.: "We have been grunion greeting for about five years, and this was the most extensive run we have seen. There were fish on the entire section of beach for more than one hour." Greeter Terje N.: "It was a good run from 10:20 to almost midnight, better than I have seen in several years on this beach. Easily thousands of fish." Greeter Mayda W: "We thought it was the best in 3 years. Not only was it fairly consistent in intensity, but the area covered was really large."
Derrick B. notes, "Although we saw few Grunion, it was an awesome night!" Jeffrey J. "saw the moon, a shooting star, and pretty sure a single fish for a second or two." Susan H. suggests one possible compensation: "Alas, no Grunions on a perfect moonlit night.....we had quite a romantic time."
A Glitter of Grunion, photo by S. Ebner (click to enlarge)
...thus they are models of brevity and wit. Greeter Tina M.: "Anyone having a late dinner at the beachfront restaurant got the Grunion Run Dinner Show included." Greeter Donna C. "It was fintastic!" Joel O. "Got Milt?" New Greeter Michelle L. dealt with space limitations this way: "OMG!Itwassoexciting,I'veneverseen anythinglikethatinmylife."
Having followed the grunion north into the San Francisco area, we are now moving south as well. Thanks to my fellow UCLA alum, the beautiful and talented Dr. Ana-Esther Escandon, the Grunion Greeter brochure is translated into Spanish. This season Oscar Romo and his NOAA team will Bienvenida al Gruñon on several beaches in Baja California Norte, making this an international effort.
Grunion Greeters enjoy the moonlight, photo by J. Wong (click to enlarge)
Guitarfish, sharks, birds, night herons, godwits, sanderlings, egrets, gulls, pelicans, great blue herons, a seal, a goose, and willets were reported at the runs. "Spawning abruptly ended once we saw the 2 ft. shark which came up directly onto the sand. Then run was over within minutes." – Rose G. "A small sandpiper type bird tried to pick up a grunion but it was too big. He stood and bobbed his head up and down as though frustrated that he couldn't enjoy a meal." -- Belinda L.
Greeters are very protective of our distracted grunion. This is CLOSED SEASON, no take of any kind is permitted. Olivia M. notes "Our presence helped inform the beach goers about grunion etiquette during this closed season, and answered their questions about grunion behaviors and this study."
Terje N. saw "four well-prepared middle-aged female poachers filling several plastic bags of grunions." Chris L. "saw several shorebirds and poachers looking for a late night meal. The birds would leave when I took their pictures and the poachers would stop their gathering and go away." Mark B. saw "4 groups (2 to 5 people in each) carrying buckets. We told them grunion could not be hunted and it looked like most of them did not collect any fish." Andrew F. "told a few gentlemen that it was closed season and they threw the fish back, surprisingly. One said that he was confused because the news said that the grunion were running, they must not have mentioned the closed season part of it."
Leah T. "ran into 2 guys from Phoenix and talked to them about the grunion. We ran into these guys again around midnight and they said they saw some people catching them and advised them it was illegal and the people took off!!!"
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It’s party time for grunion! Photo by L. Congdon (click to enlarge) |
It’s party time for grunion! Photo by L. Congdon (click to enlarge) |
We appreciate the cooperation of many agencies that provide special permission for trained Greeters to be on closed public beaches to monitor grunion runs. We are truly grateful to the police officers, rangers, lifeguards, and game wardens that protect us and our natural resources by enforcing the rules.
Melissa Studer was outraged by the presence of poachers and called the Fish & Game Hotline, 1-888-DFG-CALTIP. "Not only did I reach a live person via the hotline last night, but a local warden called me back today! He asked a lot of questions and then suggested we have Greeters (if possible/practical) record the license plate number of the poachers."
Carlos C. "wanted to share my grunion adventure. I had been on the beach less than 10 minutes when a police officer pulled up in his truck. He asked what I was up to and I began going on about the grunion and some of the things I had learned in the workshop, he politely interrupted 'You mean like those fish right there?' I turned around and directly behind me were a few grunion making it to shore. We watched for a minute, stunned at what had just occurred and the timing of it all. I broke out my notebook and quickly made some notes.
"The officer seemed to share in my excitement and offered to have me as a ride along for a few minutes and see if we can't spot some more. I agreed, on the condition that we use as little lights as possible and drive outside of the high tide line. We conversed about grunion and the beach management activities as I searched the surf zone for mating activity and he searched the beach for graffiti perps and the occasional teenage mating ritual. We were able to educate a few kids who were poaching about the April-May closed season. At the end of the run, lo and behold, we spotted a W-1 spawning event! We both left the truck for a closer look and stared in awe at the event we were privileged to witness. I thanked the officer for his time and in the end, the grunion made two new fans. Thanks for the opportunity to be a part of this program."
The future of the species, a grunion nest, photo by C. Carreon (click to enlarge)
Data from previous grunion runs will be loaded into the state’s GIS database at UC Santa Barbara for use by the MLPA science team and stakeholders as the Marine Protected Areas process comes to southern California.
Vincent Gin, Senior Civil Engineer in OC "thought you might be interested in CCC staff's summary regarding a Coastal Commission hearing with an enforcement action for berming, removing wrack & impacting grunion runs." mms://www.cal-span.org/calspan/Video_Files/CCC/CCC_08-04-09/CCC_08-04-09.wmv Data from Grunion Greeters were used to support the Coastal Commission’s action.
Ken Herbage, Beach Maintenance Supervisor "will notify the staff about the locations. We are also going to be placing some signage along the beach areas to let the public know about the protocol from beach cleaning and vehicle traffic and the Grunion."
Many thanks to all of you who went out in the middle of the night to peer into the darkness and dodge the waves. Big props to Melissa Studer at her Command Center for managing to get the Greeters on all the beaches so efficiently! Get your reports in and sign up for the future dates of greeting our favorite fish on the shore. All signs indicate that we are in for a memorable grunion season.
May the fish be with you!
In Imperial Beach the politicians take their Grunion Greeting seriously. The "Official" Greeters pictured include Mayor Pro Tem Patricia McCoy; Chair Debi Carey, Tidelands Advisory Committee, Patsy Brown representing the City Manager, Gary Brown; and NOAA scientist Oscar Romo and his team. Photo by Councilmember M. Winter. (click to enlarge)
