Professor of Biology and Frank R. Seaver Chair of Natural Science
Pepperdine University
24255 Pacific Coast Highway
Malibu, CA 90263-4321
Messages sent to Grunion Greeters from Karen Martin, Ph.D.
GRUNION GREETINGS 1
March 4, 2002
Dear Grunion Greeter,
Thank you so much for your time and efforts this past weekend to meet and greet the famous
silvery fish! We had reports from all four beaches, and a small number of grunion
showed up to be counted.
I hope you will continue to watch for grunion. The runs should increase in strength
over the next few weeks. Again, your information is very valuable, even when the
grunion do not show up. Thank you!
Best fishes,
Karen Martin
Karen
Martin, Ph.D.
Professor of Biology and Frank R. Seaver Chair of Natural Science
Pepperdine University
24255 Pacific Coast Highway
Malibu, CA 90263-4321
March 21, 2002
Kudos to all grunion greeters after our second weekend!
Despite icy winds, rain, and even hail, you bravely walked on the beaches and reported
back. You are true field biologists! All the sites were covered by
volunteer observers, and at least a few fish were seen at all four beaches. Your
efforts are much appreciated, along with the quality of your data.
It is still very early in the season but some spawning occurred and many fish are in the
area. The runs should grow stronger over time. We hope to set up a study site
after the next set of runs over Easter weekend, using grunion greeters to point us to the
right places.
I thank you sincerely for your careful observations and your time.
All the best,
Karen 
April 5, 2002
Hello to the grunion greeters!
Congratulations on getting the grunion data even on a holiday weekend. As a result
of your efforts, flags were placed on two beaches last week marking areas with substantial
grunion eggs. The band of eggs in the sand extends about 3 meters (10 feet) toward
the ocean from the flags.
I greatly appreciate your efforts and the high quality of your information.
We have one technical glitch with the data sheet on the web, and that is the comment
section. The system is not set up for long, detailed comments, and it makes the
spreadsheet difficult to read. However I am very interested in your comments, so if
you have extensive comments beyond the specifics locating the grunion areas, please e-mail
them directly to me.
Best fishes,
Karen 
April 19, 2002
Salutations intrepid grunion greeters!
Here's the latest on those silver charmers. We had about 80 greeters out for the
last run, and you saw fish in pretty substantial numbers on 7 of the 10 sites. I was
in San Diego on Wednesday of last week and confirmed lots of eggs present on Mission
Beach, Ocean Beach, and Pacific Beach. At La Jolla, smaller numbers of fish were
seen also. We are also getting reports of grunion spawning in Orange County and Los
Angeles County.
We are now entering the peak of the season so the runs will continue to get better for a
few more series. I am so delighted that you are seeing so many fish in so many
locations. Your reports with the details about spawning locations are really helpful
for finding the eggs; otherwise it's worse than trying to find a proverbial needle in a
haystack.
Melissa and I met with the beach grooming team last Wednesday. The crews helped us
locate eggs and they are very interested in the summer study. We have clarified some
of the procedures they are using, based on information grunion greeters provided. I
hope you will continue to send information from your sites if you think it is
relevant.
We are still working on the ways to mark the beaches. At this point we are
re-considering the use of flags. We may be using GPS data so if you have that
capability, feel free to send that data along too.
Thank you again for your time and your enthusiasm.
All the best,
Karen 
What a marvelous night for a moon dance!
Many, many grunion were seen last Sunday and Monday nights, with several > Grunion
Greeters reporting the strongest runs they had seen all season. We had some great runs on all four beaches, from
Site #1 at La Jolla Shores to Site #10 at Ocean Beach. The closed season continues
through the month of May, so we are in the peak spawning season now.
My research team set up study locations on the beach at Site #3, Pacific Beach, and Site
#7, Mission Beach. At these locations we collected eggs in the sand before and
after the study areas were groomed. The beach maintenance crews assisted us by
grooming in these three (small) specified areas, and also helped us find the bands of
grunion eggs in the sand. They are
well-informed and enthusiastic about the scientific study.
We are finding lots of eggs on shore, at the precise locations you Grunion Greeters tell
us they will be. I can't thank you enough for your patience and priceless
observations during the grunion runs. We have an unprecedented opportunity to learn
more about these unique and wonderful fish, and it would not be possible without
you.
Thank you so much, and we'll see you on the beach!
All the best,
Karen 
May 25, 2002
A very heartfelt memorial holiday greeting to all of you.
Thank you for your careful observations of grunion during the past series, May
13-16. The grunion surprised us by running early this time. Your observations
and patience are truly appreciated even when the fish don't show up on schedule. My
students and I were in San Diego the night of May 15 and we too saw no fish that night.
Fortunately the presence of many eggs in the sand indicates a lot of grunion did find
their way ashore, and we set up two study sites over the past two weeks, on Ocean Beach at
Dog Beach and on South Mission Beach. We also found eggs at other sites in Ocean,
Pacific and Mission Beaches, thanks to the grunion greeter information.
The information you are providing is extremely important for our analysis of the
population of grunion in San Diego. This study could not be done without your help,
so again, thank you for giving up sleep and comfort in pursuit of these wily little
fish. Also, thank you for your observations of poaching during closed season.
There are several sites where this is a continuing problem, and this is something that
needs to be addressed.
You will be happy to know that we are following eggs throughout development in our
studies, and returning many cute little larvae to sea after hatching them out. We
hope to see them back again as adults next year.
In Malibu, we often have our best grunion runs during the last week of May. Perhaps this will also be true in San Diego this
year. Keep your eyes out for that silver lining!
Best fishes,
Karen
June 7, 2002
Dear Grunion Greeters,
A little night magic last week! Grunion appeared in significant numbers on all four
San Diego city beaches. We received reports from you volunteer Grunion Greeters of
lots of fish at Sites 2, 3, 4, 5, 8, 9, and 10. We also confirmed eggs at sites 6
and 7, and even at Black's Beach north of La Jolla.
There have been two run series with grunion on all five beaches: the runs at the end of
May, and the runs at the end of April. I am very pleased to see so many fish over
such a wide area. I was at Pacific Beach on May 28 and witnessed an impressive run
covering the entire beach for hundreds of yards. My
students Kim and Jennifer are pictured with the fish in the enclosed photo.
Someone requested advice on photos at night. The way we do it is wait until the fish
are coming up in good numbers. Then, shine a flashlight on the fish BRIEFLY to get
the focus. Then use a bright flash to get the photo.
You can see that the result is usually not as sharp as daytime photos, but it has a
certain ambiance. Some turn out better than others. Yes, the flash does
scare the fish away, so be patient. I am
definitely interested in any photos you may take during the runs, including photos of
people (yourselves and others) on the beach waiting for, or watching the fish.
Now that June is here, closed season is over. While some of us are happy just to see
the grunion, let me remind you that if you do want to catch them, use only your hands, and
be sure to possess a valid California fishing license if you are over 16 years old.
I encourage "catch and release". I continue to be interested in your
reports of the numbers of people catching grunion on shore.
Thank you again, so much, for your incredibly valuable data and your keen
observations. You are much appreciated.
All the best,
Karen
June 18, 2002
Greetings grunion enthusiasts:
What a great season this is! The fish keep showing up almost every time, and you
keep being there to greet them. I have really enjoyed meeting many of you on the
beach and by e-mail, and sharing this fishy fascination.
At this point in the study we (all of us, together) have observed many thousands of
grunion spawning along all four of the San Diego city beaches. The scientific team, with the beach maintenance
crew's assistance, has moved over 3 tons of sand and counted over 8 hundred thousand
grunion eggs. I think it's safe to say that
the demise of the grunion in San Diego has been greatly exaggerated.
We still need to collect more data from study sites, so your observations continue to be
very important. In addition, we are compiling a map to show where and how often the
grunion run along these beaches, with your reports. Please
continue to send your comments, questions, photos, and other information along. I am
so happy to have so many eyes on the beaches providing this set of unprecedented
data.
Thanks for losing sleep, thanks for caring about these wonderful creatures, and thanks
most of all for sharing your invaluable observations.
All the best,
Karen
July 3, 2002
Greetings to the Grunion Greeters once again!
At the past run series on June 26 and 27 you saw fewer fish and more people chasing
them. We are getting toward the end of the spawning season. There will
probably still be some fish showing up for the next series in mid-July, as they did last
year, but things are slowing down. Timing is everything. Well, timing is half of everything, and reporting
it is the other half.
There are still quite a few pods of eggs in the San Diego sand at this time. My scientific team has confirmed your reports and
collected eggs from every site. We raise some of them to check for viability, and we
will continue to do so as long as the grunion continue to run.
Your information is so valuable. The beach maintenance staff will continue with its
grunion protocol, grooming only above the high tide mark, until they hear from us that the
grunion eggs are no longer present. So please keep your eyes open and keep those
reports, photos, comments, and other information coming. THANK YOU SO MUCH!
All best fishes,
Karen
July 16, 2002
Dear Grunion Greeters,
That wonderful summer romance is coming to an end…
Very few fish showed up on shore last weekend. Those that did were quickly
caught. On a reconnaissance of the San Diego city beaches yesterday we found
fresh grunion eggs only at one site on Pacific Beach.
Grunion Greeters have followed this year's grunion from the first fish in March, through
the peak runs in April and May, to the last few stragglers now. This has produced an
unprecedented data set with incredibly rich information that my research team is currently
working hard to analyze. Thank you so much
for all of your information, your patience, your careful observations, and most of all for
being there for the fish.
One of the important findings of the study this summer was that "older" grunion
eggs can often be found right beside newly spawned clutches. Obviously not all the eggs wash out during high
tides. These eggs are ready to hatch but have not been triggered to do so yet. They
can extend incubation for several weeks, and will not hatch until washed out by waves at
the next high tide later this month.
The strong possibility exists that a few eggs remain scattered in the sand from the
previous run on the beaches. Therefore the beach maintenance staff has agreed to continue
the grunion season grooming protocol, staying above the high tide line, until after the
next full moon tides on July 24.
I believe that a few grunion may yet appear on shore in late July and in August, but the
spawning season is basically over. Please let me know if and when you happen to see
grunion throughout the rest of the summer. I hope that we can continue to monitor
the grunion in San Diego and elsewhere in Southern California at some level in the future.
I am very interested in hearing any additional comments you have about your monitoring
experience. Most of all, let me express my gratitude again for your generous gifts
of time and energy in pursuit of scientific knowledge.
I hope you experienced a little night magic.
All the best,
Karen