grunion greeting, 2014 #4

female California grunion dug in sand laying eggs

while 4 males cluster around her head

Leuresthes tenuis
(CDFW)

 

It was all about the group fish p0rn this late 3rd night, high tide after the full moon.  We spotted numerous clusters of 4-5 males per female, as compared to one on one.  This only seems to happen when the runs are heavier, which makes sense.  The females are quite acrobatic, flipping themselves straight up into the air out of the sand to catch the next big wave back to the ocean.  It's totally fun to watch under the light of the full moon.

open season
4 spotted cusk-eels, 1 northern anchovy(?), several grunion

Steve the Fisherman was there (must recruit him!) with 6 other people and 2 buckets when we arrived.  They were the same folks from last year June 8 when Bob Lea measured fish.  They remembered me and asked if I wanted take measurements of their hand catch.  I did, which is a little tricky with wet fish and wet paper and wet pen and wet sand.  Have I mentioned it was wet?  And cold?  I have no idea what I was doing.  They told me they arrived around 10:30, started seeing cusk-eels around 11, and then the grunion followed with ~25 at a time.  I was impressed with how much they knew.  There was a tiny silver fish in their bucket (at 3 o'clock above) that did not look like a grunion.  I'm totally making a guess that it's an anchovy, because my other flash pics of it in my hand, in the dark, did not provide any detail.

W-2 (shown above) and possible W-3 closer to the wharf

grunion greeting

Considering the bucket-toting folks were next to the wharf, Andy and I walked down the beach. About 250 yards down, there were another couple spots of grunion.  We stood between the two locations for most of our watch.  Andy walked down to the cement structure past a bonfire group, and he didn't find any additional grunion spots.  A couple hundred came up in a few waves around 12:30, but mostly it was maybe a dozen to 30 or so at a time over the course of 45 minutes that we observed them.  When we returned to the wharf, the group described hundreds coming up onto a long flat section of the beach.  It sounded like a W-3 to me.  For Monterey, this was a good grunion night.  To compare with my past observations, click to see a definite W-3 and a fantastic W-4.

06/12/14 full moon 9:13pm
06/14/14 high tide 11:51pm 6.16 ft
beaches: Municipal
Charlies: 6 + 1 western gull + flock of unknown gulls
others: Andy, Steve the Fisherman, 6 other people grunion fishing by hand, and a bonfire group
my observation time: 11:29pm - 12:57pm
W-2, 30 at a time already running on arrival, couple hundred at a time max

grunion greeting, 2014 #3

prejuvenile spotted cusk-eel

Chilara taylori

(Kindergarten-level info)

While we were out on the nighttime beach looking for grunion, it quickly became all about the cusk-eel for J and me.  Armed with a flashlight under the complete darkness of the clear skies and new moon, we eventually found 4 or 5 after waves washed out (we had different counts, and we didn't even need a 2nd hand to count - ha!).  They seemed a bit lethargic, kind of like the grunion I observed on May 15 (Something weird is going on, because even in SoCal the grunion are inexplicably beaching themselves and not in a good way.)  One cusk-eel we found wiggled its entire body down, tail first, not too dissimilar to what a grunion does when she lays eggs, except the cusk-eel completely disappeared into the sand.  We also noticed numerous mini-craters that noisily bubbled water as the waves receded.  J kept saying, "It totally sounds like a spa!"  Ya, the waves were relatively calm this night for us to hear the bubbling.  We're wondering if all the cratered holes were created by the freshly dug cusk-eels?  There were also a handful of cancer crabs and sand crabs digging down in the sand, but nothing thin enough to make a drill-like hole.

It's thanks to Dr. Guacamole (that's not his real name, btw) for alerting me to the fact my crappy photo "eel" from July 9, 2013 was a cusk-eel, but all I could recall to tell J this night was that it wasn't a real eel and was actually a fish.  Dr. Martin also chimed in and eventually I was able to get "retired" CDFW Bob Lea's expert ID down to species.  He cowrote the technical report Checklist of Fishes Known to Occur in Monterey Bay National Marine Sanctuary with Erica Burton last year.  And thankfully, considering I'm bugging some very busy people with my ID questions, they were glad to get my observations and photos.  I'm guessing not a lot of people report cusk-eel sightings.  This is only the second time I've ever seen them in all my grunion nights.  I've seen grunion more times than cusk-eels, and that might be saying something. 

I found the burrowing tail first to be fascinating, especially in the exact same spot we've seen the grunion lay eggs.  What makes this beach so great for these sand-loving fish?  The extremely calm waters and fine sand?  With Bob's permission, this is what he said about my photo above, "The cusk-eel is a prejuvenile Spotted Cusk-eel, Chilara taylori.  At this size the spots have not yet developed; I am guessing the fish in photo is ca. 5 to 6 inches in length.  Cusk-eels enter the substrate tail first and their caudal structure is modified, fusion of bony elements, enabling them to do this.  There have been several papers discussing tail-standing and burrowing in cusk-eels and I can send you the references if you are interested.  Chilara taylori was originally described from the beach at Monterey in 1858.  We encountered prejuvenile fish last year (July or August) solving a puzzle that I did not know the answer to until then.  Also, the prejuvenile stage is nektonic and the fish you saw are in the transition process of changing from a pelagic to benthic existence.  Good to get your observation."  Man, it's been forever since I've seen someone use "ca." - no offense to Bob.  Fortunately, after having watched Bob measure grunion last year, I thought to throw down my lined-note pad next to the cusk-eel for a photo and then later the lined-note pad with a ruler to get an accurate read of size (I don't take my favorite ruler out for fear of losing it in the waves).  So, I sent a second set of photos.  The one shown above is only ~3 3/4" long, which turns out to be in the typical 70 to 100mm range.  Bob collected 20 specimens last year, and they're now housed at CalAcademy (CAS 236552).  I wonder how long they live?  Holes and infrequent sightings make me think of periodical cicadas which develop en masse every 13 or 17 years.

I should mention that I had a very difficult time finding an ID match online a couple weeks back when I was updating my July 9, 2013 post, but that's not surprising for marine life.  Little did I know the cusk-eels I've seen aren't the fully spotted adults yet.  Ha!  There are several SCUBA divers' community groups that share wonderful photos of marine animals.  Makes me wonder if any of them have ever seen grunion, because so little is known about their behavior off the sand and in the water.

Charlie

black-crowned night heron
Nycticorax nycticorax

I'm always entertained by Charlie.  Over the course of half an hour 3 Charlies showed up and were unusually friendly with us as we stood at the water line with them.  I think they snatched up a couple tiny cusk-eels.

grunion greeting

Leuresthes tenuis 

(CDFW)

Eh, we only saw 2 waves of 6 grunion each (whippee) not too far from the cement structure down the beach.  I reported it as a W-1, because Dr. Martin instructed me that any sighting at all is significant for the Monterey Bay.  It was a mellow night, good to be out with J, and always fun to find new things.  Oh!  We also quickly stopped at San Carlos Beach on our way home.  No grunion there.

05/28/14 full moon 11:43am
05/29/14 high tide 11:18pm 5.52 ft
beaches: Municipal, San Carlos
Charlies: 3 + 3 western gulls
others: J, Steve the Fisherman (yes, he was there - I should recruit him!)
my observation time: 10:27pm - 12:10pm
W-1, 2 sets of 6 (same individuals?) near cement structure down beach 11:33-11:38pm.

grunion greeting, 2014 #2

 fish p0rn

female grunion dug in sand and laying eggs

while male releases cloudy milt around her head

Leuresthes tenuis
(CDFW)

 

unusually small male, others were lethargic

W-1 (shown above) and at times W-2

grunion greeting

We try to arrive about 1/2 hour before high tide, because our experience has been if the grunion are going to run, they will usually have already started.  We also know that if we spot a black-crowned night heron (aka Charlie) on the beach as we pull up on the pier, there will be grunion.  This held true for both Wednesday (no blog post) and Thursday nights.  If there isn't too much human interference, we noticed the Charlies seem to know when the grunion are done and fly away. 

I submitted both night's reports to Dr. Martin through her online form and sent her an e-mail per her request because grunion sightings in Monterey are not common.  She invited me as her guest to the first Ocean Science Trust conference held at Asilomar last month.  The various perspectives on crunchable Citizen Science were extremely helpful to me as I embark on my own project.  Thank you, Dr. Martin!

I'm reformatting my typical grunion greeting blog posts, now 5 years after we began.  Man, I can't believe we've been doing this so long... okay, we did skip a year, because we got so discouraged from too many late nights with no grunion sightings.  I hope to add better information this year, although reading back through our experiences has been fun.

  

05/14/14 full moon 12:18pm
05/14/14 high tide 10:42pm 5.8 ft
beaches: Municipal
Charlies: 4 + 1 western gull
others: Chris Tenney, Dr. Matsumoto & friends, Steve the Fisherman
my observation time: 10:15pm - 11:45pm
W-1, 25-50 already running on arrival
 

05/15/14 high tide 11:22pm 5.87 ft

beaches: Municipal, San Carlos, Asilomar

Charlies: 5 + 1 western gull

others: J, Steve the Fisherman, Dr. Guacamole & crew
my observation time: 10:45pm - 12:15am
W-2, 100's already running on arrival

Pacific sardine ~ 04/02/14 ~ Coast Guard Pier

Pacific sardine

Sardinops sagax caerulea

(for more information click here and here)

Since I live here and walk Cannery Row on a near daily basis, I feel like I should appreciate the history of Monterey's sardine boom, bust, and return a little more.  But, I don't... that is, until the marina guys offered me as many sardines as I could carry.  Oho!  Uh, two would have been plenty, thanks. They're way bigger than what you get in a can, but really not all that big, coming in at 10" even.  After scaling, beheading, gutting, and attempting to remove backbone and ribs in one fell swoop for 7 sardines, I am now fully aware one of my previous posts of small silvery fish was incorrect.  It was hard for me not to turn a quick fish cleaning into a dissection exercise (Oh, is that the liver? This one must be a girl. What is that!?!  Etc.)  Eh.  At this point without any other sardine cooking practice, I'd say I prefer canned sardines for the 2 times a year I crave them.  Andy was a trooper and patiently picked through the surprisingly tough bones.  Only later did one of the fellas tell me that larger sardines are not considered as good to eat as the smaller ones with softer bones.  Sigh.  Now, I just need to make friends with a crab potter...

ps 01/15/15 - Here's an interesting blog post about historical Cannery Row.

wordless Wednesday

grunion greeting, 2013 #4

cusk-eel, grunion, and other fish

grunion

Leuresthes tenuis
more information

grunion greeting

new moon cycle, 11:05-12:39, cloudy skies

This was a pleasant night and a nice way to finish off my birthday activities. When we arrived at the beach, 13 people were already there with buckets containing grunion, cusk-eels, and other fish. The local fisherman in the bunch said they arrived at 10pm and saw about 20 grunion thus far. This was their first time out since learning about grunion from the CA Fish and Wildlife schedule.  The other groups were a young family and a couple individuals.  Somewhat unusual compared to past grunion nights, everyone seemed incredibly respectful of the grunion (e.g., waiting until the female was done laying eggs before collecting her) and curious about what else was on the beach (e.g., Charlie and 3 of his night heron friends, a medium-sized sea turtle making its way parallel to shore, bioluminescence they had witnessed 3 nights before while sardine fishing).

I asked to take a quick picture of one of the small cusk-eels they had in their bucket before they let it go. It's too bad it's such a crappy photo. In any case, I discovered it's very difficult to find online information about the different kinds of eel-like animals. Fishbase.org has a searchable db, but like BugGuide in its early days, it needs more content to truly become a user-friendly site. Can anyone recommend an eel ID site?

At 12:07, we were all starting to pack up when another decent run of 60-80 grunion came up with a big wave. We stayed for the next half hour with another 2 runs at 12:20 and 12:37. I've reported this night as a W-1.  It certainly wasn't as exciting as May 26 (W-4), May 25 (W-3), or June 8 (W-2), 2013, but way better than no grunion (W-0) as has happened too many times in past years.

ps 05/18/14 - Thanks to a grunion greeting e-mail exchange with Dr. Guacamole and Dr. Martin and quotes from Bob Lea, the unidentified eel above has been identified as not a true eel, but a cusk-eel.  As to species, I can't say for sure.  Although, spotted cusk-eel (Chilara taylori) is mentioned quite a bit online for this area.  Paperbone (Lamprogrammus niger) and giant (Spectrunculus grandis) are reported for Monterey Bay as well.

grunion greeting, 2013 #3

 grunion

Leuresthes tenuis
more information

grunion greeting

new moon cycle, 10:23-11:40, cloudy skies

Welp, every grunion greeting night we've done has been a little bit different than the others. The only person we knew who showed up was Bob Lea, a retired marine biologist with the CA Fish and Game (er, Fish and Wildlife).  He has that calm, solid demeanor of someone who has spent a majority of his life outdoors.  There were several other people on the beach and the wharf with buckets and big lights, out to experience the spectacle that is a grunion run.  It's open season now, but I wish it wasn't since grunion in Monterey is such a rare sight.  One lady came for her grandchild, and she ended up having more fun chasing grunion than the boy who was quite scared of the fish.  I laughed at her pure joy and exuberance, even though I felt a little sorry for the mating grunion she snatched up.  Bob convinced a couple of the grunion captors to allow him to measure their caught fish.  In a dry bucket, the grunion quickly lose their blush or mint green glow and become quite silvery.  There was also a luau being held at the recently renamed Del Monte Beach House, complete with 80's dance music and karaoke, judging by the tone-deaf singing we heard.

Once again, the grunion did not disappoint.  Why couldn't we have seen this from 2009-2011? Numerous scouts were first spotted right after we arrived ~10:25.  Then shortly after high tide of 10:43, the grunion runs peaked with a couple hundred on the beach at a time.  The waves had an incredible reach up the sand, leaving many of us soaked.  I'm debating whether to report this as a W-2 or a W-3; the numbers were slightly less than the first night after the full moon 2 weeks ago.  The fish petered out by 11:05, right before last call for alcohol and horrendous singing ensued from the luau. After most of the people left, Charlie and 3 of his night heron buddies joined the after-party.  A gull gobbled up a lone grunion at 11:27.  We ducked out very pleased with our excursion at 11:40.

grunion greeting, 2013 #2

 grunion greeting

full moon cycle, 11:33-12:46, cloudy skies

Greet, greet, greet.  Why, hello.  Welcome.  The grunion (Leuresthes tenuis) did not disappoint for a second night in a row.  I'm debating as to which Walker Scale rating to call this run.  I'm leaning towards reporting it as a W-4.  The character of this run was very different than the night before.  It's difficult to say if there were more fish overall, but they were definitely more heavily concentrated in a much smaller area of beach and for a shorter amount of time.  Andy walked it out and figured they stretched across about 15 yards wide at the most numerous, whereas the previous night they stretched at least 2-3 times that length.  This run didn't last long.  In fact, it was pretty much done by high tide of 11:50.  It's a good thing we arrived early.  What struck us was that these fish were significantly smaller in size than last night.  Younger, maybe?  The waves were extremely gentle, and we noted how loud the fish slapping sound was.  Amazing. Charlie didn't show up until we were getting ready to leave.

The human activity on the pier was also very different from Saturday night, even though this was a holiday night.  It was pretty much deserted, except for one lady I recognized from our annual Easter festivities and from around town.  I was sad to discover she's obviously homeless.  She seemed embarrassed and tried to hide in the porta potty (she kept peeking out to see if we were still standing there), so I didn't start a conversation with her.  If I see her again during the daylight, I'll see what I can do for her.  Sometimes I wonder if we're considered weirdos for going out in the middle of the night to watch fish.  Seriously.  We tried to rally friends to come out and meet us since this is such a rare local occurrence, the last time being the summer of 2007, six years ago! Even with lots of returned enthusiasm, only two former classmates of Andy's showed up. They're both teachers, one in elementary and the other in high school science. We walked the beach towards the cement structure and found another small patch of scouts and maybe 5-20 grunion per big wave.  We laughed at how in past years, we would have been over the moon to see 20 grunion.  It was a good night for us.  Sigh.

grunion greeting, 2013 #1

grunion

Leuresthes tenuis
more information

grunion greeting

full moon cycle, 10:42-12:15, mostly clear skies

Happy dance, happy dance!  Finally!  Here's my long-awaited W-3!!! Woohooo!!!!!  I even called the grunion greeter 1-800 hotline and everything, because you know, I saved the number in my phone all these years.  Awesome.

Grunion runs are better known in SoCal south of Point Conception, although they have been reported as far north as San Francisco Bay.  Back in 2009, Andy and I signed up for this citizen science project, the first ever in Monterey to monitor the unusual grunion spawning runs.  We went out a total of 15 times in 2009, 6 times in 2010, 3 times in 2011, and zero times in 2012. Our biggest previous find was back on June 7, 2009 with a whopping 31 fish.  Over the course of 18 subsequent observation nights through 3 years, we only saw 15, 8, and 2 additional fish. It became too discouraging after a while to stay up so late for the full or new moon cycle high tide, dress extra warmly for the chilly, windy Monterey area beaches (we're definitely not like SoCal where they run around in shorts in the summer - ha!), trudge ourselves to the beach, wait around for an hour and a half or so in the dark, ooh and ahh over dead birds and camped homeless on the beach, stagger our freezing cold, wet, and sandy feet back to... eh-hem, well you get my drift. All for what, to count a handful of fish, maybe?  The worst was trying to function the next day on only a couple hours of sleep after 3 nights in a row.  Dr. Karen Martin at Pepperdine University and I have kept in contact through the years, and she and I have traded both encouragement and discouragement about the situation here in Monterey.  I held out hope.

When we pulled into parking at 10:42 well before the 11:02 high tide time, our good ol' friend Charlie was there with 2 of his night heron buddies and an oddball gull gobbling up fish.  From then until exactly 11:45 huge groups of grunion, maybe 30 to 300 at a time, washed up with each wave, dug themselves into the sand, danced a little dance, and then slithered and flopped back to the water with the next big enough wave.  We saw well over 1000 grunion, if not more. Makes that previous record of 31 from 4 years ago seem kind of paltry.

Okay, so, I fully admit I was molesting the fish by flashing my camera left and right to catch the action.  I still had the nerve to tell people with buckets that grunion season is closed.  Andy wasn't so sure, but I remembered April and May are no collecting months.  One fellow became verbally challenging, which gave Andy a major bad vibe about the guy.  Fortunately, his cohorts were cooperative.  Another fellow was picking up grunion right in front of us and putting them into a plastic shopping bag.  Initially he pretended he couldn't speak English, but I was adamant that he return the fish to the water.  Reluctantly, he did with the intention to return later.  I felt kinda bad for my bullying behavior.  Then, a fellow up on the pier related a story to me of how one time in SoCal a friend of his shouted "La luna, la luna!" and disappeared for a few minutes only to return with bags full of grunion.  They cooked them in tin cans over a fire.  He said they're a sweet tasting fish and the "caviar" was good.  I had the suspicion that he was homeless with a dirty duffel nearby. I liked him because he was very polite and kept calling me "Holy Lady".  We eventually left when we hadn't seen anymore grunion for half an hour.  Plus, the illicit pier activities seemed to uptick after midnight, complete with a man vomiting out of a parked car next to mine.  That was totally gross, and the other stuff made us nervous for our safety.  We're not sure if we're going to out again Sunday night since high tide will be later and the weather is looking chillier.

lingcod ~ 07/03/11 ~ Coast Guard Pier

lingcod

Ophiodon elongatus

Since I don't scuba dive or fish, the only time I ever really get to see fish up close and personal is in the Monterey Bay Aquarium, the local fish markets, or the buckets of what fishermen catch along the piers. I'm pretty sure of this ID, but I have yet to find a comprehensive fish photo ID site.

grunion greeting, 2011 #3

grunion greeting
new moon, 10:45-11:30, clear skies

This was the last of our grunion greeting for the year. Admittedly, we didn't put much effort into it after only seeing 2 grunion in the past 2 years and 9 visits. In 2009, we went out a total of 15 times and were marginally successful in finding grunion. That year we didn't mind the sleep deprivation that comes from late nights on the beach, often as late as 1:00 in the morning. As our schedules have become increasingly demanding, it's been harder and harder to keep the enthusiasm going. I've submitted all my findings... er, non-findings to Dr. Karen Martin's grunion greeting study at Pepperdine University.

Despite the lack of grunion sighting success, I'm glad we participated in the study. It got us out on the beach on a regular basis, something we never would have done, let alone at night. We've been able to notice the subtle changes on and around the beach, such as the flattening out of the beach surface itself and the addition of the neon blue lights to the pub building at the commercial wharf this year. I wondered if the bright lights affected the grunion runs on this particular beach as it is so bright and reflects in the water right where we used to spot grunion.

Above is the cement structure that I've mentioned so often in previous posts. It was our marker for where to turn around on the beach and head back to the commercial wharf. I didn't like hanging around, because people were often sleeping on the beach right there in the total darkness.

giant kelp with eel-grass and surf-grass
Macrocystis pyrifera with Zostera pacifica and Phyllospadix sp.
Zosteraceae

I had never heard the term wrack before participating in this study. Thankfully we didn't have to ID it to submit reports. We only had to make a general estimation of how much was present, if at all. Generally there was very little wrack during grunion greeting nights, which I think had to do with the calm summer waves. As a side note, many sites still recognize eelgrass as all belonging to Zostera marina, which technically has skinny leaf blades of only 1.5-12mm wide, whereas Z. pacifica has wider leaf blades 12-18.5mm.

monkeyface-eel
Cebidichthys violaceus

I think the most fun was having a chance to talk with local fishermen who we wouldn't normally meet. One fisherman told me the fish was a "monkey-faced spine fish." Thanks to the power of google I found the ID. It's a prickleback, not an eel, so spine fish is a good descriptor. There's something really fascinating about how information is passed from one fisherman to another in a verbal way complete with stories (and exaggerations). There's a whole subculture to fishing. Names and such are not always correct, but when it comes down to it, all that really matters is, "Is it good to eat?" I suggested to Karen that she might consider recruiting the local fisherman for watching grunion in Monterey. They're out late at night anyways. Who knows, we may or may not go grunion greeting next year.

ps - While searching for monkeyfaces online, I found this wacky, zany fishing music blog, the kind of gotta-love-people-who-are-real-yo: The Monkeyface News.

northern anchovy ~ 05/18/10 ~ Wharf No. 2

northern anchovy / Californian anchovy

Engraulis mordax

The fishermen were quite pleasant out on the commercial wharf. Maybe there's a difference in gruffness from those who fish during the day as opposed to those who fish at night, like we've met during grunion greeting nights. Some folks were pulling up 5-6 anchovies on the same multi-hooked line at a time. I don't know what they were using as bait. The water was so clear that you could see the massive schools swimming around the pier.

We never ate the canned stuff as a kid, but as an adult I crave sardines and those bigger kipper snacks from time to time. I understand from the local fishermen that fresh sardines are a world of difference from the canned ones.  I'm still reading up on the difference between mackerel, sardines, and anchovies, not to mention grunion. I've added a new label small silvery fish, since I don't know how else to group them, considering they're all in different fish families.

ps 04/03/14 - I should mention the fishermen told me these were Pacific sardine (Sardinops sagax caerulea).  I find some fishermen are quite knowledgeable about their fish, and others just act like they know everything.  I've corrected the ID above now that I know better.  The giveaways for me are the gaping jaws on anchovies and lack of rows of black spots on sardines.

leopard shark and anchovy ~ 05/13/10 ~ Elkhorn Slough

While hiking at Elkhorn Slough with a friend this afternoon, we came across this unusual sight of people in the water with a huge net. What are they doing?!? So, we stuck around to watch.

Oooh, there's something moving in that net! There are two somethings! Leopard sharks! The sharks were not happy campers at being caught, but they didn't flail about as much as I thought they would. They looked incredibly strong, though.

After checking the sex and recording some basic data, these folks then proceeded to collect all those little silvery fish in the net and count them. I overheard that some were anchovies and identified mainly by their large jaws.

leopard shark
Triakis semifasciata

Within 10 minutes the researcher fellow let the sharks loose back in the water. I would have jumped in to ask questions, but these folks appeared to be extra busy collecting those little silvery fish. Link forward to learn more about monitoring sharks at Elkhorn Slough. Cool!

grunion greeting, 2009 #13

grunion greeting
new moon cycle (10:15pm-12:15am), overcast skies

Holy mackerel! I've always wanted to say that, but haven't had a good opportunity until now.

We arrived at Del Monte at 10:10pm and to our surprise couldn't find a good parking spot. The pier was crowded with tons of fishermen (actually both men and women)!!! We got out of the car and asked the nearest fisherman what was going on. He said the mackerel were out. We asked how he knew and he dryly replied, "Because the buckets are full." We had to laugh at his comment and then asked how all the people knew to come out to fish. He then said, "We have cell phones." LOL! We meet some interesting people during grunion nights. I walked down the pier and talked to some folks and asked if I could take pics of their mackerel in buckets. I'm thinking there's a grunion in the pic shown above. Apparently it's mackerel season from July to August. I wonder if we'll see more fishermen Wednesday night, too.

We didn't see any grunion on the beach but had a nice night of socializing just the same. We ran into some old friends from SoCal. Their mom, our 70+ year-old friend who poo-pooed the idea of grunion in Monterey Bay, told them what we were doing and they brought along their son. His twin sister wisely chose to stay home. Our fellow grunion greeter Diane and some of her friends were also there. The reporter from the Herald never showed. The tide came up to the 5th and 6th parking meters. It was a fun change of pace seeing a beach party at Adventures by the Sea and watching the fisherman toss their lines with little lights into the water (same kind of glow sticks one sees at Halloween or at amusement parks). We left at 12:05am in good spirits despite not seeing any grunion.

grunion greeting, 2009 #6

people & grunion
full moon cycle (10:30pm - 12:30am), clear skies

We arrived right before 10:00pm thinking we'd meet our ol' night heron buddy Charlie. Instead, we found a group of people already on the beach and lining the pier. There was also a very large cruise ship nearby with all its lights on. It was a very different atmosphere from the quiet, meditative grunion nights that we've gotten used to at Del Monte Beach. We asked around and pieced together a collective story. We greeted more people (24-35) than grunion (~31)!

Dr. Giacomo Bernardi from UCSC and an entourage of his children, students, and former students had been out on the beach since 9:40pm. Apparently, he's been coming to this beach for 14 years to watch grunion. He said it was 10 years ago when he last saw massive numbers of grunion all along the beach. From what he said about Monterey runs being on the night of the full moon versus a day or two after like in SoCal, I believe he's the one that let Dr. Martin know of the grunion runs in Monterey. One of his former grad students said they always come out to Del Monte Beach at the start of olallieberry season, which made no sense to me.

Dr. Bernardi's children and students were catching grunion and putting them into 2 coolers filled with sea water. A little after 11:00pm, he took his 11 fish and coaxed eggs and sperm out of them into a dish. He saved the spent grunion in a plastic bag. He then poured out the cloudy dish water and put in fresh ocean water to cover the orange eggs. He explained that he was sending the fertilized eggs and grunions to a researcher back East.

We believe we spoke with Chris (or Peter) a fellow grunion greeter who was walking the length of the beach with his headlamp. He agreed with us that the crowd was unexpected. My husband was literally run into pretty hard by Dr. Bernardi right at 10:00pm while he was whooping up the first grunion sighting of the evening. We didn't get an accurate count since people were eagerly collecting fish and we simply wanted to stay out of the way.

Two sets of scuba diver pairs came right out of the water where the grunion "hot spot" is located, which was surprising. An off-duty CA Dept. of Fish & Game fellow was there as well (pictured with his yellow and white bait bucket). Apparently, the closed season is over!

We also talked with 2 older gentlemen towards the end of the night who sounded like they've been watching the beach for years. Unfortunately, we didn't get their names, but they said they'd e-mail Dr. Martin and let her know they saw us "dedicated" grunion greeters. The 4 of us were the last ones on the beach and spotted a set of 2 and a set of 3 grunion together at 11:25pm. The last picture above shows a beautifully colored female still in the sand with what looks like a successful spawn - note the cloudy water around her body.

About a half hour after saying good-bye to the nice gentlemen and not seeing any more grunion, we left the beach around midnight.

Diane, a fellow grunion greeter from May 25, called me while we were still on the beach. She and a friend went to the Seaside Beach with no grunion luck. We plan to meet up on Monday night at Del Monte Beach. Hopefully, the crowd won't be there on night #2. I don't think I could be a grunion greeter for the SoCal beaches with lots of people. I missed seeing Charlie!

ps 06/09/09 - Dr. Martin said the grunion eggs are going to colleagues of theirs at SUNY and who attended the PGMNH workshop. They already have eggs from Malibu and Mexico.

grunion greeting, 2009 #4

cormorant & grunion
new moon cycle (11:25pm - 1:05am), overcast skies

It's a little disturbing at how many dead or injured birds we've seen this year, including during our grunion watching. I'm guessing the dead black bird is a cormorant. There have been reports about dead birds on the beaches.

We went out earlier than requested at 11:05pm, because the night heron (we've started calling "him" Charlie) was already hunting on the berm the previous 2 grunion nights when we arrived. As expected, he was at his favorite hunting spot, about 20 yards from the pier and between the 6th and 7th parking meters from the bathroom. We saw our first grunions immediately from the pier before we could even get down to the beach. Unfortunately, Charlie flew off shortly after we got down to the beach; we wonder if he was already full or simply didn't want to deal with us chasing after him every time he caught a fish. There was also a pelican diving into the water throughout our time on the beach.

We counted 19 total grunion in 2s or 3s: 12 by us from 11:05-11:35pm; 4 by Diane a fellow grunion greeter and her MBA friend from 11:45pm-12:15am; and 3 by all of us at 12:20am.

Since this was the first time after the workshop night that fellow grunion greeters were at Del Monte Beach, we left Diane and her friend shortly after they arrived and headed down the beach together to the cement structure with hopes to find other grunion "hot spots." No such luck, but it was very peaceful and meditative. The city lights reflecting off the clouds made it easier to see compared to clear skies and a full moon. The no-flash pic above is brighter and more orange than it actually was.

Just like the previous time, it was challenging to take a picture of the skedaddling grunion. They're awfully quick!

grunion greeting, 2009 #3

black-crowned night heron, gull, grunion
new moon cycle (10:35pm - 12:35am), overcast skies

Our friend the night heron was already out hunting when we arrived at Del Monte Beach. I still couldn't get close enough to take a good picture of him. He seemed to prefer hunting about 20 yards away from the pier.

We also saw an injured gull. Earlier that day at Del Monte Beach, there had been the 20th Anniversary Memorial Day Hoe Wa'a outrigger canoe races. I wonder if it somehow got injured during the festivities. There was also a couple who parked themselves with blankets and pillows not too far from the gull. They were grossly engaged in their own activities to not notice us running around taking pictures of birds and fish. Apparently, more than grunion like to "spawn" on the beach.

We were so excited! We saw our first live grunion, 12 total, in pairs with the females already in the sand by the time the waves receded. I was surprised at how quickly the grunion skedaddled back to the water. In order to take the picture above, I blocked the female's way with my boots... maybe not entirely kosher.

The night heron ate 4 of the grunion we counted. In fact, that's how we knew where to look. As soon as he started eating we would run over to check. He would immediately fly to a nearby tree and would return when we walked away from his favorite hunting spot. We left the beach about 15 minutes after the night heron flew away for good.