With the final aim of defining more accurate and efficient management practices for the Campeche Bank grouper fishery, we present analyses of sexual status, sexual cycle, spawning season, size at sexual maturation, and sex change for
black grouper from the southern Gulf of Mexico.
Atlantic
black grouper and gag are considered not overfished, and the status of scamp grouper is not known.
Many of those vessels are still out there, bejeweled with algae and coral, hosting schools of sardines, blue runners, grunts and much larger fish like amberjack, African pompano and
black grouper. In the midwater, king mackerel, blackfin tuna and sailfish patrol the reef zones.
1 Red and
black grouper season closes outside the 20-fathom line
Caption: Blake Gaylord took the
black grouper on a pole spear on a family trip to West End, Bahamas.
Caption: Tony Walis holds Jack Peterson's huge
black grouper off Sanibel on livebait.
Caption: Christian Aleman with a jumbo
black grouper caught off a Dry Tortugas area reef on a live blue runner.
Caption: Olivia Sargent' shot this nice
black grouper off Islamorada diving with her dad.
Caption: Young Jack Snider caught the
black grouper trolling out of Big Pine Key.
The two biggest
black grouper I've ever seen landed were in completely different situations and required completely separate skill sets to land.
"I'd speared a big
black grouper in 50 feet of water, like 50 or 60 pounds," one of the men, a Miami resident, told Florida Sportsman.
When the rod doubled over, we thought a big
black grouper or shark had taken the bait.
Mycteroperca bonaci - large dark grouper with a thick head and rough scales