they are fish that can range from a
tasty 30 pounder to something the size
of a Volkswagen you’ll see spots where
this you know multiples like 14 15 20
Goliath Grouper swimming around the
Goliath Grouper population is getting
out of hand
they were historically overfished
fishing pressure really peaked in the
1980s and there was a very noted and
dramatic decline in population numbers
especially in Florida and so there was
an emergency closure in 1990 they have
responded quite encouragingly to the
protective measures laws were enacted to
protect the fish which I think were good
laws and now 20-30 years later they
definitely or nuisance fish and what
they end up doing is yeah for fishermen
trying to bring a fish up they often end
up fighting the Goliath Grouper
who wants the same fish they have they
are opportunistic predators so they do
readily and often steal fish that are
hooked and being reeled in by anglers a
lot of anglers are concerned that
Goliath Grouper are eating up all of the
grouper and snapper species that we have
that are important fishery species and
the reality of that is that goliath
grouper typically eat lower on the
trophic level they do eat a lot of bait
fish and crustaceans they’ll eat a lot
of crabs they don’t naturally take
snappers and groupers on their own it
comes at the time that we need to start
thinking about how do we how do we
manage this right now I think a lot of
guys would like to see some sort of a
lottery system like for alligators or
moose or elk where you buy into a
lottery you’re given a tag if your names
chosen and it allows you to go out and
harvest one of these fish
the stock assessments that have been
performed for Goliath Grouper have been
inconclusive as far as total recovery of
the population goes and the data that we
have definitely show evidence that the
population is recovering but to what
level is still relatively inconclusive
so if there’s ever going to be any sort
of a limited take it would need to be
managed based on scientific evidence and
it would have to be monitored very
carefully you have an animal that once
it invades can really increase in
population numbers uh very rapidly
tasty 30 pounder to something the size
of a Volkswagen you’ll see spots where
this you know multiples like 14 15 20
Goliath Grouper swimming around the
Goliath Grouper population is getting
out of hand
they were historically overfished
fishing pressure really peaked in the
1980s and there was a very noted and
dramatic decline in population numbers
especially in Florida and so there was
an emergency closure in 1990 they have
responded quite encouragingly to the
protective measures laws were enacted to
protect the fish which I think were good
laws and now 20-30 years later they
definitely or nuisance fish and what
they end up doing is yeah for fishermen
trying to bring a fish up they often end
up fighting the Goliath Grouper
who wants the same fish they have they
are opportunistic predators so they do
readily and often steal fish that are
hooked and being reeled in by anglers a
lot of anglers are concerned that
Goliath Grouper are eating up all of the
grouper and snapper species that we have
that are important fishery species and
the reality of that is that goliath
grouper typically eat lower on the
trophic level they do eat a lot of bait
fish and crustaceans they’ll eat a lot
of crabs they don’t naturally take
snappers and groupers on their own it
comes at the time that we need to start
thinking about how do we how do we
manage this right now I think a lot of
guys would like to see some sort of a
lottery system like for alligators or
moose or elk where you buy into a
lottery you’re given a tag if your names
chosen and it allows you to go out and
harvest one of these fish
the stock assessments that have been
performed for Goliath Grouper have been
inconclusive as far as total recovery of
the population goes and the data that we
have definitely show evidence that the
population is recovering but to what
level is still relatively inconclusive
so if there’s ever going to be any sort
of a limited take it would need to be
managed based on scientific evidence and
it would have to be monitored very
carefully you have an animal that once
it invades can really increase in
population numbers uh very rapidly
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