Tuesday, July 18, 2006
The Grunion Run
About 35 years ago The PJ family and the JR family were spending our annual week at Avila Beach. These Scheuber dads were attending ag. teacher conference while moms and kids were at the beach. We had some great times together, swimming in the surf, making sand castles, getting sunburned, eating sandy sandwiches, etc. Jay and I would buy a whole crab and eat it with delight. Well this one year we heard that the grunion were running. If you haven't heard of them, here is a little intro. Each summer during full moon and low tide on predicted dates the female grunion will swim up to the beach, flip her body up to drill her tail into the sand to then deposit eggs. The male grunion will then swim up, wrap his body around the female and fertilize the eggs. These silvery, slithering fish make quite a spectacle as they make their love connection on the sand.
We all decided to go out at the predicted time, which was way after midnight, and check out these mating fish. Much to our chagrin we waited, searched in the moonlight, and found not results. We finally decided to give up and chalk it up to someone baiting us to make fools out of ourselves. Sort of like snipe hunting, if you know what that is.
Forward to July 12, 2006. Checking out the tide chart and seeing on the news several grunion seekers actually catching the grunion in buckets Wednesday night, I encouraged the night owls to join me in search of the grunion: Ted, Heidi, Haley, Sandi, Ben, Frank(Ted's friend) and I headed out to the surf at 11:15, the predicted time of the grunion run. Heidi handed us each a different colored glow bracelet. While Sandi, Ben and I glued our eyes to the shifting tides, the others frolicked in the sand throwing a "glow in the dark" frisbee. It was quite a site to see these colored rings bouncing in the dark. About 12:30 we gave up and returned to our rooms, saddened that we once again have failed to capture the fantastic "love connection of the grunion" Oh well, I now have seen it on tv and no longer believe it to be a misguided venture. olemarge
