Grunion Jonathan"). Sandra Tsing Loh, on her "Pianovisions" album has "Night of the Grunion", a jazz piano solo performed by her and a chamber orchestra at Malibu Beach in 1989. Zappa also asked the musical question "How's your grunion?" in his song "How's Your Bird?". Grunion feature at the beginning of the first episode of the 1970s documentary series "The Ascent of Man" written and presented by Jacob Bronowski. James Cameron's first directed film "" features these fish, despite the title of the film. Three episodes of "The Beverly Hillbillies" (originally aired in 1971) were about an expected grunion run ("The
Grunion research points to a restricted resource that is adequately maintained at current harvest rates under existing regulations. In the 1920s, recreational fishing of grunion caused definite signs of depletion resulting in a regulation passed in 1927 that established a closed season of three months from April until June. Grunion stocks improved and in 1947 the closed season was shortened to the months of April and May. This closure is still in effect to protect grunion during their peak spawning period. The periodic appearance of the grunion on Southern California beaches, and the act of catching them, is locally known as