trigfunctions
Contributor
Saw this article in a Florida Department of Environmental Protection newsletter and thought it was interesting. Cool picture.
InDEPth Volume 1, Issue 8 - 04/01/11
A Goliath Surprise
Baby Goliath with RB NERR Education Specialist Carly Gibb
Some students attending a field trip at the Rookery Bay Environmental Learning Center got a treat during their water quality experiment at the floating dock. When the instructor pulled up a crate of living oysters from under the dock for the Estuary Explorers program, they discovered the crate was providing habitat for not one, but two juvenile goliath groupers. Maybe not quite yet representative of their name, as adults they can weigh up to 800 pounds and reach the size of a small car.
It might seem strange that these monstrous fish would call an estuary home since they are typically associated with offshore coral reef or wreck habitat. But mangrove-forested estuaries provide crucial habitat for many juvenile marine species. After spawning occurs offshore, currents carry the tiny hatchlings into estuaries where they begin to grow until they are big enough to move back out to sea.
InDEPth Volume 1, Issue 8 - 04/01/11
A Goliath Surprise
Baby Goliath with RB NERR Education Specialist Carly Gibb
Some students attending a field trip at the Rookery Bay Environmental Learning Center got a treat during their water quality experiment at the floating dock. When the instructor pulled up a crate of living oysters from under the dock for the Estuary Explorers program, they discovered the crate was providing habitat for not one, but two juvenile goliath groupers. Maybe not quite yet representative of their name, as adults they can weigh up to 800 pounds and reach the size of a small car.
It might seem strange that these monstrous fish would call an estuary home since they are typically associated with offshore coral reef or wreck habitat. But mangrove-forested estuaries provide crucial habitat for many juvenile marine species. After spawning occurs offshore, currents carry the tiny hatchlings into estuaries where they begin to grow until they are big enough to move back out to sea.
