Fish Out of Water

Last night after my evening talk with Michael, I drove to Denny's for a late night dinner of a BLT and a cup of decaff. I was hungry, and on my way to Coronado, so I thought something in my tummy would be good.

Then about 11pm, I headed for the freeway and "the crowned one" across the bay. It was supposed to be the peak time of the local grunion run. Wasn't much impressed at first, only seeing a few flipping around on the beach. But as I walked a little further along the water's edge, I came across more... and finally, a stretch 20 paces long that was packed with the silvery little bodies. There were hundreds of them! It was pretty dark out, especially since it was the new moon, but I had a little LED flashlight that did the trick.

Suddenly I came across one little fish (they're about 5-7 inches long) buried in a little hole higher than the water-line. Only it's tail stuck out. I considered helping it out, but then I saw bunches of tiny orange eggs in the bottom of the hole and the fish was resting on top of them. That one I left alone. And then I noticed some eggs, not much bigger than the sand itself, spread out on top nearby. Walked a little further, and looked up towards the shore and saw isolated little fishes gasping for air, far from the water. So I picked them up (some wriggling strongly and others weakly) and set them back in the wet part where they could flip and swim their way back into the ocean. But there were a few that were already stiff... :( I had a lot of fun saving the half-dozen or so. :)

There are some good pics online of what it looked like.

It was 12:20 this morning when I got back to my car and returned home. I had a good two-hour nap this afternoon after work to make up for it. Felt oh, so good.

Jw