Strange kinds of groupers

[SamFamAustin]

The kinds of grouper we get off Texas are very few, such as the black, Warsaw, rock hind, and some illegal Goliath. Pretty ho-hum, and except the rock hind or "strawberry grouper," fairly downright ugly! But the Abacos is LOADED with all different kinds of grouper, is my understanding. Some such as the Tiger Grouper are reportedly high in ciguatera and not good to eat - I think the natives take them home to cook, myself. Many are quite beautiful with dazzling colors.

So if you have some photos, stories, or videos of strange colored groupers, well, it would be awesome to see and hear 'em. Oh, and please help protect the grouper, especially the Nassau and the Goliath. -sammie

[vharrison]

Sammie, the Goliath grouper abound here in the Keys. We would like to see the ban lifted. The thing is, once the government puts some type of regulation on a fish, they rarely lift it. We, here in the keys, are fighting hard the regulation that is at hand banning all grouper fishing from SC to the Fl Keys from Jan-May. The science just does not support banning all grouper.

[dogfish]

I'm not a big fan of closed seasons for reef fish unless it can be shown that the closed season happens at the same to as spawning aggregations when finding the spot could simply fish out the population. I also don't like federal closures for reef fish because it is very hard to lift those bans once they are in place. I would support a co-ordinated effort from the states between SC and FL and the Gulf states to close the season for grouper but make it a shorter closed season based on spawning and keep the full closed season for commercial fishing. If it is done on a state level than it can be tweaked as the data comes in.

I enjoy catching Goliaths down in the keys and do wish they had a take one slot limit, but in the end I see people taking the small ones all the time down there and if you speak up about the fish being protected you usually end up in a violent or near violent confrontation. Let me be clear that I do not see locals from the keys taking the Goliaths, these guys come from just north of the keys and have no regard for fisheries laws (none). I noticed a big increase in Goliaths two years ago but this past July we didn't see any (that weren't being put in some guy's cooler on a bridge). The Keys has been sort of a testing ground for fisheries laws. When I started going there regularly in 1980 fishing was crazy good. By 1990 you were lucky to end up with a couple of grunt and now fishing is very good there once again (although not what it was). There was a lot of resistance to the sanctuary areas years ago but I feel that they are part of the reason fishing has improved, but once again I wish they would tweak that program and rotate the areas the are sanctuaries.

Just my 2 cents.

-Doug

[SamFamAustin]

Well I was hoping for some "perty groupers" but I guess there always will be some fish politics - which I suppose was from my comment about the Nassau and Goliath (formerly the not-so PC Jewfish).

I was surprised to learn that it is a big contest between the recreational and commercial fishermen, state and federal regulatory agencies, and environmentalists versus "fish modelers." Sounds goofy, but there are statistical computer models that predict the Total Allowable Catch based on population estimates, catch rates (mortality), by-catch (shrimpers), new juvenile recruitment, and stock assessments. None of these models really work, by the way, but the idea is that you have six lobby groups at each others throats and it is all politics.

Let me give a Texas-sized example to show you why. Last year the fish models said that red snapper in the Gulf would have a Total Allowable Catch of "X" many thousand pounds. These fish were allocated to each state and then split 50/50 between recreational and commercial interests. The recreational season was two and a half months or so for recreational fishermen (including women!). We were just informed that the recreational red snapper catch was so high that next year, the 2009 season would only be two and a half weeks long.

Now us water folks go out fishing all the time and those fish are darn near leaping into the boat they are so thick, and huge ones too! What is wrong with this picture? Shame, we have to throw them back and the dolphin and shark nearly always eat them before they can get to the bottom, especially in water over 60 feet deep.

Our red snapper are just like your grouper in Florida. I wish I had something more positive to say, but clearly see an enviro movement to ban fishing in certain Marine Protected Areas and even entire species. This pains me because I've been an ardent "enviro" for about 25 years, myself. Sorry for the rant, but I share your feelings ... :(
sammie

[AbacoBoy]

There are lots of different Groupers in Abaco. Here are just a couple. The first is a Yellowfin, which I think has beautiful colorings, sort of resembling a Black Grouper. The second is a Yellow Mouth, which resembles a Red Grouper, but with the yellow mouth obviously.