February 14, 2019 — The grunion is a weird little fish.
Grunion are perhaps best known for washing up on California beaches — from Baja California all the way up to Monterey Bay — several times a year to spawn en masse for hours, starting on a night with a full or new moon, according to the California Department of Fish and Wildlife.
The creatures travel as far up a beach as waves will carry them, and then females dig nests and lay thousands and thousands of eggs. Males come ashore, too, and fertilize the eggs — and then males and females alike return to the ocean, sometimes in less than a minute, the state fact page on the species says.
But it turns out those fish — bizarre as they might seem — can teach scientists something about sea creatures’ ability to adapt to climate change. That’s according to a new study from scientists at Long Beach State University in Southern California.