State may loosen 31-year ban on killing goliath grouper

Proposal currently a preliminary recommendation; guidance being sought on whether to go forward

A 600-pound fish that has become an unlikely South Florida tourist attraction may soon have a target on its back.

Goliath groupers gather around the sunken freighters, drug-smuggling ships and other vessels that form artificial reefs off the coast, where legions of divers photograph these fish that display unusual curiosity about their human visitors.

But while the goliath groupers have had little to fear from people, that could soon change. A proposal to lift a 31-year ban on killing them will go before the Florida wildlife commission next month, where it’s certain to face opposition from the giant fish’s fans.

The proposal by the staff of the Florida Fish and Wildlife Conservation Commission says any “harvest” would be limited and tightly controlled. And it’s just a preliminary recommendation, seeking guidance on whether to go forward from the commission, a seven-member board appointed by Gov. Ron DeSantis.

But divers, who have given favorite individual groupers names such as Shadow, Betty and Wilbur, are likely to fight it anyway. The last time the state considered allowing them to be caught, opponents showed up in “Save the

Goliath Grouper” T-shirts, supporting the fish with the sort of enthusiasm normally reserved for whales, pandas and panthers.

“I think the divers will come out strong in opposition to it,” said Dave Ochs, owner of Aqua Safari Adventures, a scuba diving guide service in Boynton Beach.

But many fishermen consider the goliath grouper a nuisance, an all-too-common fish with the irritating habit of snatching the catch off their lines. Scientists say such cases are rare and that the goliath grouper’s diet consists mainly of crabs, lobsters and small fish. But people who catch fish trade stories about goliath groupers rising from the depths to steal a fish being reeled in.

“They sit on a wreck and eat whatever comes their way,” said Jim Lemke, a Tampa Bay fishing guide. “If you go out on a wreck and you hook a mangrove snapper, they’ll come up and just eat it.”

Once called the jewfish, a name considered a bit insensitive for modern times, the goliath grouper suffered severe declines through the

20th century.

Big and easy to find, they got hooked and speared for food. Coastal development chewed up the mangroves that sheltered juveniles. All catch, aside from catch-andrelease fishing, was banned in U.S. and state waters in

1990.

Today, the population is growing, although the report by the wildlife commission’s staff says it remains small and spread over a much smaller area than in the past.

The proposal to allow them to be caught, scheduled to be discussed at the commission’s May 12 meeting, would have the support of many people who engage in hook-and-line fishing or spearfishing.

“I don’t see why the state won’t open it back up,” Lemke said. “There used to be fewer, just like alligators, where they almost became extinct. Spearfishermen

and rod-and-reel fisherman — everybody wants to catch a big fish, so that’s how they got endangered. Now they’re just everywhere.”

Opposed are likely to be environmentalists and divers. While goliath groupers lack the exotic colors of many reef fish or the menacing glamour of sharks, they attract divers for the opportunity to get stunningly close to such impressive and surprisingly docile fish.

Goliath groupers congregate by the dozen around wrecks such as the M/V Castor, a former Dutch freighter seized in 1999 after 10,000 pounds of cocaine was discovered on board. The ship was sunk in 110 feet of water off Boynton Beach to become an artificial reef.

Goliath groupers’ reliable presence on the Castor, the Ana Cecilia and other wrecks, particularly off Palm Beach County, has become well-known in the worldwide dive community.

“I’m already getting calls to book for it in August in September,” said Ochs, the Boynton dive guide. “It’s very popular. We have people coming from Florida, obviously, but [also] from the Midwest [and] the South. We have people coming from Louisiana [and] California.

“It’s just so cool seeing them. My client yesterday — he and his dad, adult son and father — they were amazed. It’s almost like they’re tame. They just come right up to you. It’s a pretty fascinating thing for a diver to see.

“So I understand they’re wild animals, not pets, but their behavior underwater makes you think of them almost like your neighbor’s dog.”

Intensely territorial, many of the goliath groupers have become wellknown to divers, who gave them names. A particularly friendly one named Wilbur, who can be found around the Castor, has his own Facebook page.

“They come over and want to hang out with you,” Ochs said. “And not because you’re feeding them. They’ll come over and look you in the face and hang out. And bump up against you and try and get your attention.”

The proposal to allow them to be caught has not been worked out in detail. The staff of the commission has just made the recommendation in writing and requested guidance on whether to move forward.

But the report does not recommend anything like an open fishing season. A catch would be severely restricted. The last proposal, which the commission rejected in

2018, would have allowed

100 to be taken.

The staff report said that while the goliath grouper’s numbers are growing, the population remains relatively small and vulnerable, with susceptibility to red tides and cold snaps. Their numbers have plummeted in the past.

Today’s goliath groupers show so little genetic diversity that it appears likely the population had been “fished down to relatively few individuals,” the state’s report says.

“Though an open-access harvest is not advised,” the staff recommendation states, “a limited harvest is possible while the population continues recovery and would provide a unique recreational fishing opportunity in Florida state waters.”

Undersea photographers try to get shots of schools of small fish “balling” around the goliath grouper for protection from larger fish, said Kevin Metz, owner of Underwater Explorers, a Boynton Beach dive service.

“It’s a trophy photograph,” he said. “It’s a very technically difficult photograph to shoot. It’s extremely difficult to get the exposure right.”

Metz is also skeptical of any proposals to allow them to be caught, saying he doubted the population could handle it.

“If it’s not managed well, it won’t take long for their numbers to run down,” he said. “It’s not like there’s this many of them all over the place.”