Tiny Grunion Latest Victims of Oil Spill

The tiny grunion, an almost mystical little fish indigenous to Southern California, have become the latest victims in Orange County’s oil spill, authorities said Monday.

The 5- to 7-inch-long, silver-colored grunion wiggle onto beaches at high tide to lay their eggs in the sand. Normally, their spawning starts in March, but it is occurring early this year. The grunion are coming up on oil-slicked shores and are dying in unusually high numbers, according to state officials.

“We’ve written off this spawning run,” said Paul Gregory, a marine biologist with the state Department of Fish and Game.

Gregory and other state environmental officials noted that the tiny fish will continue to have egg-laying cycles through August. However, they said, the oil-poisoning deaths of adult grunion threaten the food chain.

Gregory said that gulls may eat the oil-tainted grunion, then become ill themselves. Halibut, a larger fish that feeds on grunion, also may suffer, he said.

Gregory said that the first grunion spawning of the year started Sunday night and early Monday morning. State officials later found about 100 dead grunion on the shores of Huntington Beach.

“The fish suffocated, or they were poisoned” by the oil, Gregory said.

Grunion are found from the coast of Santa Barbara to the northern portion of Baja California. During the spawning period, they come ashore at high tide at night. Females burrow tail-first into the sand, depositing up to 3,000 eggs, each the size of a pinhead. Male grunion fertilize the burrow, and then the adult fish swim back to sea on outgoing waves.

State government allows hunting for grunion by hand, except during April and May, the peak months of spawning.

Gregory said the oil-suffocation deaths of adult grunion are only a part the tragedy. The eggs laid in the oil-stained sands also could be doomed, he noted. Cleanup workers and mechanical scrapers are busy in the spawning area, trying to remove the oil debris, and could possibly dig up the eggs.

Grunion nests in the Huntington Beach area are likely to be ruined, but of necessity, Gregory said. Gregory said he would be telling the cleanup workers: “Don’t worry about the grunion when you’re cleaning the beach.”