| Sex on the beach: a beloved California fish wriggles ashore to spawn | |
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Credit: Gabriella Angotti-Jones/The Guardian |
On certain nights on a quiet California beach, thousands of small, silvery fish gather in the moonlight to perform a unique mating ritual.
Known as the “grunion run”, the spectacle is one of the lesser known natural wonders of the US west coast. |
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Grunion are a rare fish species that come ashore to spawn, and during the months of April to August they cover beaches from Baja California to Santa Barbara like a glittering carpet, wriggling in the sand to lay and fertilize eggs just after the highest tide of a full or new moon. |
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