Grunion are fish that lay their eggs on land! Right after the peak of the highest spring tide, the grunions throw themselves onto the beach. Once on land, the females bury themselves up to their gills in the sand and lay their eggs about four inches below the surface. At that moment the males appear, twisting and flopping sideways across the beach. As soon as they bump into the egg-laying females, they saturate the sand with milt in order to fertilize the eggs.
The grunion can survive out of water for 20 minutes, which is plenty of time to lay eggs on the sandy beach and return to the water. The total spawning process usually takes less than three minutes! Within 24 hours the eyes of the baby fish are already visible in their yolk sacs. Soon after that, blood can be seen circulating in their threadlike bodies. Ten to fourteen days after the eggs are laid, the pounding of waves on the seashore signals the eggs to hatch. The next high tide returns just in time to wash the fully developed baby grunions back into the water.
Why would the first grunions have ventured onto land? Why lay their eggs on land? How could the males have learned to fertilize the eggs in this way? How did the fish learn to time things so perfectly? Evolution has no answers. Give the glory to our intelligent Creator!
From A Closer Look at the Evidence by Kleiss, October 2.
