Grunion

Grunion spawning (California).

The photographer writes; Here's a fresh fish foto -- this is from last week's run, the first (official) of the season. It was a great run. More pictures from last week's run.

Image: Carl Manaster.

As long as you send images to me (and I hope it will be for forever), I shall continue to share them with my readership. My purpose for posting these images is to remind all of us of the grandeur of the natural world and that there is a world out there that is populated by millions of unique species. We are a part of this world whether we like it or not: we have a choice to either preserve these species or to destroy them in search of short-term monetary gains. But if we decide to destroy these other life forms, the least we can do is to know what we are destroying by learning that they exist. If you have a high-resolution digitized nature image (I prefer JPG format) that you'd like to share with your fellow readers, feel free to email it to me, along with information about the image and how you'd like it to be credited.

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Thanks, GS! I was out again last night, but saw only a few dozen fish and took no pictures. For anyone along the Southern California coast, if you haven't seen grunion before, I recommend the experience. They come out onto the beach to spawn, laying their eggs at high tide nighttimes during full and new moons between April and September. Lots more information here.

What a coincidence -- I'd been lecturing my students on reproductive strategies the other night and had to provide grunion as an example of an "aeropsamophil" spawner. Thanks for the great photos!

By FishGuyDave (not verified) on 20 Apr 2007 #permalink