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The goliath grouper (Epinephelus itajara—the fish formerly
known as jewfish) was added as a candidate species to the Endangered
Species List in 1991 throughout its geographic range in U. S. waters--an
area extending from North Carolina southward through the Gulf of
Mexico. All harvesting of the goliath grouper in federal waters of
the southeastern United States (including the Gulf of Mexico) has been
prohibited since 1990 and in the Caribbean since 1993. Stocks are
not expected to recover quickly. Recovery of populations
will be indicated when both the age and size structure and the
geographic range are reestablished. Until then, and age structure
of the population are also reestablished, Until then, some
level of protection will likely always be required, based on the life
history characteristics that make them susceptible to rapid overfishing
in the first place--longevity, slow to mature, aggregating to spawn.
The National Marine Fisheries Service, under the authority of the Magnuson-Stevens Fisheries Conservation and Management Act, lists the goliath grouper as overfished in it's 2000 "Report to Congress on the Status of Fisheries and Identification of Overfished Stocks". Commercial or recreational retention of goliath grouper is prohibited both by the South Atlantic Fisheries Management Council and the Gulf of Mexico Fisheries Management Council in their snapper-grouper and reef-fish fishery management plans. The main group researching the goliath grouper include scientists from Florida State University and the NMFS Southeast Fisheries Science Center (SEFSC) Reef Research Team . Additional Resources: 2. The 2000 IUCN Red List of Threatened Species. Gland, Switzerland and Cambridge, UK. xviii + 61pp. 3. The National Marine Fisheries Service Office of Protected Resources lists Goliath Grouper as a candidate for the United States Endangered Species list. |