>>ARIANA:
The California grunion is a small, silvery
fish that looks
similar to a sardine. These little fish are
special because
they can only be found in California and northern
Mexico, and
because they run. Grunion runs are exciting
events that happen
twice a month during the summer, when the
moon is full or new.
This is when the tide is high enough for the
grunion to "run"
onto the beach, creating a wriggling silver
carpet of fishy
bodies. They aren't doing this for fun;
it's a crucial step in
their life history. As they come ashore, the
females bury
themselves in the sand and lay thousands of
eggs in their new
nests. The males then come and wrap themselves
around a female,
releasing their milt, or fish sperm, to fertilize
them. A grunion
run can last for hours, but when it is over
the adults return to
the sea, leaving their eggs to mature in the
sand for the next two
weeks before they hatch and make their own
way towards water.
Besides being fascinating in their own right,
California grunion play
a critical role in the marine food web. They
are a food source for many
different species of mammals, seabirds, invertebrates,
and fishes.
If grunion populations decrease, the diversity
and abundance of
these higher trophic levels also decreases.
One of the biggest threats
to grunion is human activity. Beach grooming,
coastal armoring, and
other anthropogenic beach activity have decreased
grunion numbers
drastically.But with enough awareness and
responsibility, grunions
and humans can help each other. Attending
a grunion run gives people
of all ages a unique opportunity to engage
with and learn from nature.
This strengthens the empathetic connection
between us and the earth
and inspires personal investment in its protection
within the upcoming
generations. Within the past 14 years grunion
populations have expanded
to the north, spawning as far as San Francisco
Bay. This unusual change
in behavior has prompted researchers to look
at how the effects of beach
loss and air and ocean temperature changes
influence spawning sites and
population sizes. Dr. Karen Martin at Pepperdine
University has created
the Grunion Greeters Project to collect in
situ data, or data collected
on site, for the grunion. Grunion Greeters
receives a constant influx of
data during the peak spawning season of March
to June by citizen scientists.
>>SOL: The project used Aqua MODIS and MUR imagery
to produce time series
maps of sea surface temperature and chlorophyll-a
along the coast of
California for the past 14 years. Aqua is
a NASA satellite which collects
information about earth's water cycle and
MODIS is one of its instruments
on board.
>>LAEL: These maps will help partners predict grunion
migration patterns in the
future and save time and resources by showing
where to point citizen
scientists. End users will have a new and
improved way to assess current
management approaches, and can improve their
conservation practices based
on the results of this project.
