Goliath Grouper Action Alert

Goliath Grouper Protection Under Attack The Miami Herald reports board members and staff from the Gulf of Mexico Fishery Management Council, the South Atlantic Management Council and the Florida Fish and Wildlife Conservation Commission will meet Jan. 7 thru 9, in Key Largo to consider reopening the Goliath grouper fishery. Theres been a lot of interest, especially from the gulf side where they are seeing more , in reopening that fishery, Mahood said. It has been nearly a quarter of a century since a ban on legally harvesting a Goliath grouper, then known as a jewfish, was enacted in 1990. Only within the last few years have Goliaths returned to their ancestral spawning grounds offshore of Palm Beach County. Each August through October spawning aggregations of these 500 lbs. giants amass by the hundreds on coastal shipwrecks guaranteeing a spectacle seen nowhere else in the hemisphere. The Palm Beach County aggregations have become a major tourist draw for the dive industry. Because of the Goliaths predictable behavior they are an easy target by fishers. The protection of these spawning sites is essential for the survival of the species. Scuba divers and conservationist are outraged by this development. After learning of the Fishery meeting a petition to protect the Goliaths was quickly posted online. We strongly urge you to sign it. Petition: http://petitions.moveon.org/sign/save-the-goliath-grouper.fb77?source=c.fb&r_by=9731813 Here is a just one of many videos shot by local divers highlighting this years aggregation on the M/V Castor in Boynton Beach. http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=lxawTkRz9yA To learn more about these magnificent fish visit Grouper Luna(http://grouperluna.wordpress.com/) Miami Herald: Ban on harvesting Goliath grouper is revisited. Read more here: http://www.miamiherald.com/2013/12/25/3837358/ban-on-harvesting-goliath-grouper.html

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