let me know what you guys think on the subject
FREE PRESS
DECEMBER 6, 2006
KEYS NEWS
OUR WATERS
State to discuss opening goliath grouper to limited harvest
By Timothy O’Hara
Free Press Staff
KEY LARGO – The rebounding of the goliath grouper population has led sport fishermen around the state to suggest that the large lumbering predator should be open for catch and fillet, not just catch and release.
The Florida Fish and Wildlife Conservation Commission will address the issue Thursday, Dec. 7 at the Key Largo Marriott, mile marker 103.
The commission will not take any action during the public meeting, but commissioners will discuss whether they should open the species to scientific harvest, meaning that a set number would be caught per year for research purposes, FWC spokesman Lee Schlesinger said.
Goliaths have been protected since 1990, when both state and federal fishery agencies prohibited all harvest because they were overfished.
Federal officials removed the goliath grouper from the federally protected species of concern list in February, but they have maintained a prohibition on the commercial and recreational harvest of the species, formerly known as jewfish.
The stock still is considered to be overfished under the Magnuson-Stevens Fishery Conservation and Management Act, said officials with the National Oceanic and Atmospheric Administration, which oversees marine fisheries.
Fishermen across the state have complained that goliath grouper are eating all the bait fish and the baits on their rods.
Andy Griffiths, who runs a fleet of charter boats that take overnight fishing trips in the Dry Tortugas, said the federal and state governments should allow one goliath grouper per boat per day. The agencies could also have a short season, as opposed to allowing them to be caught year-round, Griffiths said.
“It would be a small proposal,” he said, “We could monitor their populations to see what happens.”
Capt. Don Kincaid, who sits on the Florida Keys National Marine Sanctuary Advisory Council, was not in favor of opening up the species for harvest. But if it were allowed, he would like to have fishermen only be allowed to catch one a year, with FWC officers punching a hole in their licenses so that they could track how many each person has caught a year.
Longtime Keys fishermen Don DeMaria contends that populations are still far too low for them to be caught and filleted. He has taken researchers on his boats, and they have been able to collect samples from their stomachs and get measurements from them with out killing them, he said.
DeMaria admits that he overfished goliath groupers for years, and said the same people who want the species opened for harvest are the one who triggered the decline.
“They can’t accept responsibility,” DeMaria said.
The fishery on goliath grouper has been closed for 16 years, which is about equal to the average generation time of goliath grouper and about twice the time it takes for newborn to reach sexual maturity. They reach sexual maturity at 7 years old when they are about 48 inches long.
Goliaths are top predator in the food chain and slow-growing. Their territorial nature and affinity to large underwater structures makes them easy to catch.
“In some fishing spots they are so aggressive that they are interfering with fishing for other species and are becoming a nuisance,” said Doug Gregory, who works on Keys marine conservation and commercial fishing studies for the University of Florida Extension Services in Monroe County.
“If this occurs to you, it might be better to find another fishing spot temporarily. It is best to not purposely try to catch the large adults for fun because they only can be caught by brute force with a great likelihood of injury to the fish.”
Gregory supports opening up the fishery for research purposes. He said he believes fishery managers need more data on the fish.
The fish also are killed because of misidentification. The smaller juvenile goliaths may look like a black or gag grouper to inexperienced spear fishermen and recreational anglers. A goliath grouper can be identified by its rounded tail, whereas the other, more common groupers all have squared-off tails.
Management efforts began on the species in the early 1980s when the South Atlantic Fishery Management Council prohibited spearing goliath groupers. The South Atlantic and Golf of Mexico fishery management councils and the state of Florida prohibited all harvesting of the species from federal and state waters in 1990.
Goliath grouper is the largest of the western Atlantic Ocean grouper. They can reach a maximum length of about 8 feet long, and weigh up to 880 pounds. They can live for more than 35 years. The body color is brownish yellow, gray or greenish, with black spots appearing on the topside of its head, body and fins.
tohara@keysnews.com
