For A Silvery Calif. Fish, A Special Moonlit Night Summertime is
beach time in Southern California, even at night. Locals gather
around bonfires, roast marshmallows and enjoy each other's
company. On some very special nights, there's even sex — at
least for the fish. The grunion run happens only in the spring
and summer months. Late at night, under the full and new moons,
thousands of tiny, silvery fish swim to shore for a very
peculiar mating ritual. "The grunions are basically spawning
tonight," says Larry Fukuhara, the program director at the
Cabrillo Marine Aquarium in San Pedro. "The females are coming
out," he says. They'll burrow backwards into the sand about 2 or
3 inches. Then the males will "wrap around" and fertilize the
eggs, Fukuhara adds. Grunion look a lot like sardines, just a
little bigger. They're native only to Southern California and
the upper Baja Peninsula. On this night, the tiny, silvery fish
are expected around 10:30 p.m. There is no guarantee of a
grunion sighting, but Fukuhara stays