Goliath grouper debate returns to Florida Keys

A new round of conversation and controversy over the possible harvest of Goliath grouper starts Aug. 1 in the Florida Keys.

“The Florida Fish and Wildlife Conservation Commission needs your input on Goliath grouper management, including the possibility of a limited harvest in Florida state waters,” FWC staff said Tuesday while releasing a schedule of 14 statewide workshops on one of the biggest fish in the ocean.

Key West hosts the first session, Aug. 1 at the Key West Marriott Beachside Hotel at North Roosevelt Boulevard and U.S. 1.

Following will be an Aug. 2 workshop at Hyatt Place Faro Blanco Resort & Yacht Club around mile marker 47.5 bayside in Marathon, and an Aug. 3 session at the Murray E. Nelson Government Cultural Center at mile marker 102 bayside in Key Largo. All the workshops run from 5 to 8 p.m.

Four workshops in North Florida will be held in mid-August. Seven more Goliath grouper sessions, including ones in Davie and Naples, take place in mid-October. The FWC plans to post an online “virtual workshop” on issues with the giant fish and take comments online.

Goliath grouper, formerly known as jewfish, have been off limits to harvest since 1990, when overfishing and loss of habitat threatened to eradicate the slow-growing species that can reach 800 pounds and live for more than three decades.

In recent years, commercial and recreational fishers have contended that the Goliath grouper numbers have rebounded to the point of becoming a nuisance to anglers and a potential threat to the seafood industry.

Many state fishery scientists have cautioned that not enough is known about Goliath grouper numbers to declare the fish has sufficiently recovered to withstand a harvest.

The Diving Equipment Marketing Association, joined by a group of Florida dive operators, says Goliath grouper have more value as a living underwater behemoth that excites visitors than as a food fish.

Catch rates usually serve as critical component of fish population estimates, researchers say, so not having any harvest makes it difficult to provide a reasonably accurate assessment of Goliath grouper numbers. A controlled and limited harvest could help scientists learn more about the size of the Goliath grouper population and the age of the fish, FWC commissioners commented at a February meeting.

Any harvest of Goliath grouper from federal waters seems unlikely in the near future since federal fishery laws require a definitive scientific basis for allowing catch of species once defined as threatened.