The Grunion Run
The remarkable yet elusive grunion fish fights to bring its next generation into the world. This charming video tells you all you'll need to know to see this amazing phenomenon yourself. Connor’s first MicroActivist movie!
GRUNION INVASION
This remarkable yet elusive fish fights to bring its next generation into the world...
I love the ocean and all its critters! One night my parents took me to watch the grunion fish invade our local Southern California beach to spawn. I got to stay up until the middle of the night and experience an amazing fish behavior that few have ever heard of. The night was full of amazement, freezing, getting drenched, and sadness. Why sadness? ...because as I was in heaven watching these amazing fish spawn and create the next generation of grunion, I saw people catching them during their protected time. I decided I needed to make a quick movie to tell people how amazing these critters are and why we need to protect them.
Good Grunion-Watching Manners
Please don't bring your dogs. Dogs are way cool, but they just scare the begeezers out of the poor grunion.
It's tempting, but don't just catch 'em for fun. Remember, every grunion you catch will be too pooped out to perform its special purpose.
...and please be careful not to step on them.
Please don't shine your flashlights to see them. Especially when there are just a few. It just scares them away and they may not spawn that night. I found you really don't need the lights if you just let your eyes adjust to the full moonlight.
If you do catch them for food or bait, please respect the times when they are protected from being collected, and help chase off people who are collecting them when they shouldn't be.
Be sure to fill out a grunion observation form after you've gone to see them. These cool forms are on the Grunion Greeters website here... http://www.grunion.org/sighting.asp
Anyone can fill 'em out and the forms really help the researchers from NOAA in charting how well the grunion are doing each year, so they can set up more off-limits dates and other helpful stuff to keep the grunion better protected.