Gulf Coast Reef Hunters

Goliath Grouper

This article taken from Key West Citizen.

A comeback for Goliath grouper?
While some fishermen say yes, conservationists say not so fast
BY TIMOTHY O’HARA Citizen Staff
tohara@keysnews.com
The success of a conservation effort is measured on a slippery scale when it comes to Goliath grouper, a protected species whose numbers have rebounded in recent years.

Supporters of harvesting the large fish — they can reach lengths of 8 feet and weigh as much as 800 pounds — claim the lumbering giants have become so numerous anglers can’t reel up smaller fish without them being snatched off their lines. Goliath groupers also are consuming large numbers of spiny lobster, a major cash crop, supporters of opening the fishery say.

But many conservationists disagree, insisting that Goliath grouper populations have not rebounded to a point they can be harvested. And, they say, studies show that spiny lobsters are not a mainstay of the Goliath grouper diet. They believe fishermen would quickly wipe out the species by targeting them on wrecks and artificial reefs, and by spearing the slow-moving fish that often ignore divers.

The South Atlantic and Gulf of Mexico fishery management councils and the Florida Fish and Wildlife Conservation Commission (FWC) are convening a panel to consider the idea of opening up the fishery. The FWC board discussed the issue earlier this month at its meeting in Key Largo, where William Teehan told the board the agency will “play a leading role on this panel.”

The panel — to comprise scientists, fishermen and fishery managers — will determine the best way to conduct a stock assessment, either by allowing some fishermen to harvest the species or by conducting some kind of fish count. The panel also will determine what areas are surveyed.

Both state and federal fishery managers have said they lack enough information about the fish to make a decision on reopening the fishery, which was limited to catch-and-release in 1990. Some have urged fishery managers to allow a certain number of the groupers to be harvested for research purposes, facilitating a more accurate stock assessment.

In 2006, researchers with the Florida Fish and Wildlife Research Institute proposed a stock assessment that would have allowed the harvest of 800 Goliath grouper over two years. The assessment was scrapped after several scientists and conservationists opposed it, said Chris Koenig, a Florida State University marine biology professor who has conducted research on Goliath grouper.

“That was no way to treat a fish that is trying to recover,” he said.

Koenig said there are ways to conduct stock assessments that would give age data without killing the fish. He said he has conducted studies that determine age by the number of rings on their dorsal fins, similar to how a tree’s age is determined.

Koenig and Florida Keys commercial spearfisherman Don DeMaria argue that a study needs to be done to determine the value of Goliath grouper alive over the course of its life. Goliath groupers are an attraction for divers, and dive boat operators regularly visit wrecks and reef spots where they frequent.

“There is way more economic value to them being alive than dead,” DeMaria said.

“If the fishery is opened up, the first place people are going to go kill them are the wrecks where divers go to see them alive. There needs to be an economic value study of this fish.”

Koenig agrees the fish are more valuable as a living resource.

DeMaria said the dive industry should be represented on the panel the FWC and fishery councils are putting together. He said fishermen are already harvesting the fish illegally, year-round.

A photo of a living Goliath grouper with a spear tip in its head was circulated this fall to FWC and Florida Keys National Marine Sanctuary, with a request that officers look out for divers spearing Goliath groupers at Bahia Honda Bridge.

Goliath grouper mortality is still very high. The population post the closure peaked in 2006 and has declined ever since, DeMaria said.

Koenig also said a January 2010 weather event may impact populations in the years ahead. He said a cold snap may have killed as many as 95 percent of the juvenile population in the Everglades and other mangrove areas off Florida, making this is “poorest possible time to open [the fishery] up.” He said the juveniles spend their first five years in the shallow mangrove habitats.

Intense recreational and commercial fishing pressure is blamed for the population decline of Goliath grouper in the 1980s. Improvements to spearguns and diving equipment in the 1960s and 1970s led to greater numbers of Goliath groupers being taken. Advent of GPS and improved fish-finders also have made the species easier to find.

The ban on their harvest came in “response to indications that the population abundance throughout its range was greatly depressed,” according to the federal protection law.

The Goliath grouper is recognized as a “critically endangered” species by the International Union for Conservation of Nature (IUCN). The species throughout the world has been “observed, estimated, inferred or suspected” of a reduction of at least 80 percent during the past decade, according to IUCN.

No timetable has been established for selecting panel members, but the councils expect them to start meeting sometime in 2012, council representatives said.

tohara@keysnews.com