Grunion

Grunion are the fish at the center of a brief nighttime spectacle witnessed by the narrator and Nic Sheff on Coronado Island. Their appearance and disappearance turn a family beach walk into an encounter with a natural event that seems almost unreal once it is over.

Appearance on the Beach

During a visit to San Diego, the narrator and Nic rent bicycles on Coronado Island. On an orange full-moon night, they walk along the broad beach and are startled by tens of thousands of shimmering grunion brought ashore by a wave. The fish gather on the sand for their mating ritual.

Spawning and Return to the Sea

The female grunion wriggle into the sand and deposit their eggs. The males wrap their eel-like bodies around the females to fertilize them. Within half an hour, rising waves sweep the fish back into the sea, leaving the beach as though the gathering had never happened.

Narrative Significance

The grunion are described through a tightly observed sequence: arrival with the wave, spawning in the sand, and return to the water. Their sudden disappearance gives the family outing an ephemeral quality; the narrator compares the vanished spectacle to something they might have imagined. The encounter is a self-contained moment of shared attention between the narrator and Nic, rather than a recurring element in the book.