AWESOME VIDEO: Save Goliath Grouper (Endangered Species) from renewed Trophy Fishing

[Mx.Diver]

Ok friends, lend your ears & eyes for a new & wonderful 6 minute video diving with Goliath Grouper off W. Palm Beach, Florida! This was an epic event!
Video: Goliath Grouper - Treasure in Florida Waters - YouTube


It was night, under the full moon. The shipwreck site was deep, dark and in strong current.
The Mission: try to photo/video document spawning habits of resident Goliath Grouper, an endangered species, to add support to Dr Sarah Frias-Torres' campaign in convincing The Florida WildLife Commission NOT to allow sport fishing to once again decimate the population of this amazing species already fighting to recover from near extinction. We knew the Goliath had gathered for Spawning Season...
Video: Goliath Grouper - Treasure in Florida Waters - YouTube

Please Forward this message to your friends!
Please help this video (hopefully) go VIRAL in support of the cause to continue conservation of these amazing colossal fish. Spread the word, lend your voices to the cause, protect an endangered species. Contact info to participate is at the end of the video. I rarely jump on a crusade, this one is worthy.
But mostly ..Enjoy the video!

The Goliath Grouper are struggling to recover from near-extinction by over-fishing. Even after a 22 yr moratorium the population is minimal due to long life span & late maturity age to reproduce. Your voice is needed to convince the Florida Wildlife Commission to continue the ban and NOT ALLOW the Fishing Faction to have an open season on these creatures.

Please forward this video link to everyone you know, diver or not, to encourage conservation. Once they are gone it is FOREVER. To participate contact Dr Sarah Frias-Torres; sfriastorres@gmail.com


Support Articles:

Miami Herald Article:
JUPITER: Divers flock to see rebound of Goliath grouper - Outdoors - MiamiHerald.com

The full scientific article can be seen here:
Cambridge Journals Online - Oryx

Dr Sarah's blog;
Guilt Free Goliath Groupers « Grouper Luna

 

[100days-a-year]

Cannot wait to legally shoot one again.They are rebounding tremendously and soon it will be possible to either buy a tag or shoot part of a limited quota.As seen with the red snapper rebound scientists who rely on grants dispensed in the event of crisis can ralely be trusted.Dr.Aults flawed hogfish study is a prime example as well.Fortunately the FWC uses a variety of methods to set reasonable limits on species who have a population which can sustain a sensible harvest.

 

[Chugwhump]

I love to see Jewfish.
We need a limited...LIMITED...hunt in SOME places.
I like the tag option...and we need to just drown the poachers.
Chug
Thinks some intelligent, carefully considered
culling is in order.

 

[danvolker]

I love to see Jewfish.
We need a limited...LIMITED...hunt in SOME places.
I like the tag option...and we need to just drown the poachers.
Chug
Thinks some intelligent, carefully considered
culling is in order.

Why do we need to cull them....why do you think there are places where some need to be killed?

 

[Chugwhump]

Dan;
I have it on good authority that there are wrecks in the Gulf that are just plumb stuffed with Jewfish.
They are actually so high in population and concentration that there is almost nothing but Jewfish on some wrecks on the left coast.
They inhale about everything.
I am just looking for balance to be restored in some places as required.
The thing is....
There is no reason to take a big one.
The meat is worthless for anything other than fertilizer or cat food, as I understand that the big mommas are loaded with parasites and wormies after 200 pounds or so.
I would prefer that the hook and line crowd leave them alone.
Spearos are a little more selective.

Chug
Wishes LSU's defense was just nearly as good as their offense.

 

[danvolker]

Dan;
I have it on good authority that there are wrecks in the Gulf that are just plumb stuffed with Jewfish.
They are actually so high in population and concentration that there is almost nothing but Jewfish on some wrecks on the left coast.
They inhale about everything.
I am just looking for balance to be restored in some places as required.
The thing is....
There is no reason to take a big one.
The meat is worthless for anything other than fertilizer or cat food, as I understand that the big mommas are loaded with parasites and wormies after 200 pounds or so.
I would prefer that the hook and line crowd leave them alone.
Spearos are a little more selective.

Chug
Wishes LSU's defense was just nearly as good as their offense.

Chug,
I have been reading through much of the new research that has just been published. One thing the scientists are certain of, is that Goliaths at a favorite wreck or reef site for fisherman, are NOT responsible for reduced catch of the species the fisherman desire to catch.
The primary diet are crabs and crustaceans of species we have no interest in. While Goliaths enjoy a lobster if a lobster makes and incredibly unlucky bolt out of a hole, almost directly into a Goliath mouth, the stats on this show that Goliaths are very poor at successfully hunting and consuming lobster.
If a favorite fishing site seems to have no fish left for fisherman to catch, but is covered in Goliaths, it does NOT mean that the Goliaths ate all the fish. What it does indicate is that the existing limits to takes for existing species was too large ( again), and that fish stocks are collapsing. We do know that goliaths are opportunistic feeders, and if a snapper is on a hook, and a bunch of goliaths see this, one or more will figure they have an easy meal coming, just as a shark would... Most people with at least some education, are now aware we can't wipe out sharks around favorite fishing sites, so that the fisherman don't have their catch stolen by a shark.



Typical over the last 50 years, is that the groups setting the amount of "take" for each species, have allowed much more take than would be ecologically healthy, and so we are constantly seeing a collapse of new fisheries, and we are seeing a tiny fraction of the biomass on a reef or wreck today, than existed back in the 60's or 70's.

I do not think it is appropritate at all to have commercial fisherman having the powerful influence they appear to, on setting "Take" levels for desired species. How this influence is "effected", I can't say, but the results are too obvious to argue.


I was diving the reefs of Palm Beach in the 70's, and I can tell you with absolute certainty, that the fisheries here have been mis-managed in a shameful way. Back in the 70's, grouper would cover the bottom in the way grunts do today. and today, the grouper are almost absent, comparitively speaking. The entire snapper and grouper fisheries have been bungled, and I will not stand by and watch the same special interests decide it is time to "wipe out" the Jewfish again. We have some old videos of the reefs in the old days, shot by Frank Hammett with a 16 mm bolex in the 60's. The visual changes are heart breaking to anyone that cares about the health of our ocean ecosystem.


Back in the 60's and 70's, Palm Beach had massive populations of Jewfish, though it was starting the dwindling in the 70's. Spearfishing buddies of mine, like Frank Hammett, were out shooting every monster fish in sight.
Frank told of the Jewfish back in the 50's and 60's being so thick that dense herds of them would be found even all around the area now known as the Blue Heron Bridge Marine Park--far into the intercoastal.
Before this "resource" was being "managed" by the South Atlantic Marine Fishery, the Jewfish existed in massive natural populations, that had no negative effect on the extremely healthy and enormously larger fish populations of the day.
Absolute incompetence in determining appropriate "take" numbers of each species desirable to fisherman, has led to our marine ecosystem being just a "shell" today, of what it once was.


You might think that our fisheries situation, is analogous, to having the Redwood Forest and Amazon Forest, "Managed" by Logging Companies. The wrong agendas are just too well supported in the present structuring or oversight.



Also, the fisherman have this thing going on for them, like the story of the frog dropped in warm water that is gradually heated to boiling. If they had been dropped in to boiling water, they would have known this was bad, and gone crazy--but the slow heating lulls them into a false sense of security--they just swim lazily along as if nothing is happening. Our population in America ( of people/voters) are much like the frogs in water being slowly heated. Thy mistakenly think there are responsible fisheries in place to protect the future, yet the truth is the fish are decreasing every year, and the rules are created to keep commercial fishing as happy as possible--making as much money as poosible without allowing it to collapse a fishery in a single season.
We sat back in apathetic comas while the Jewfish were fished to near extinction once before, with full approval of the "scientists" which were clearly working for the fisherman.
The fisheries need to be managed for the future of the oceans and for mankind--and this idea that somehow they have learned enough about Goliaths now, so that they can" "manage" this species with a limited take, is enough for me to want to beath the h*ll out of some fisheries "scientists"... people that will never pay for their transgressions against the greater good..... They may rationalize the greater good as feeding as many humans as possible in this decade. I think the greater good is restoring the oceans to bio-levels closer to the 50's. Commercial fleets need to be cut in half, or removed completely in some places, and this would mean destoying some of the commericial seafood industry. Well, they brought this on themselves, and it is time to fix the mistakes of the last 60 years.

I do believe that we should be able to take "some" fish from stocks that are not endangered. Remove much of the commercial pressure by the big operations, and then allow spearfisherman to hunt for themselves, or private fisherman to fish for themselves. We NEED to collapse the commercial fishing industry, at least for a decade, for recovery to occur.

 

[dumpsterDiver]

Chug,
I have been reading through much of the new research that has just been published. One thing the scientists are certain of, is that Goliaths at a favorite wreck or reef site for fisherman, are NOT responsible for reduced catch of the species the fisherman desire to catch.
The primary diet are crabs and crustaceans of species we have no interest in. While Goliaths enjoy a lobster if a lobster makes and incredibly unlucky bolt out of a hole, almost directly into a Goliath mouth, the stats on this show that Goliaths are very poor at successfully hunting and consuming lobster.
If a favorite fishing site seems to have no fish left for fisherman to catch, but is covered in Goliaths, it does NOT mean that the Goliaths ate all the fish. What it does indicate is that the existing limits to takes for existing species was too large ( again), and that fish stocks are collapsing. We do know that goliaths are opportunistic feeders, and if a snapper is on a hook, and a bunch of goliaths see this, one or more will figure they have an easy meal coming, just as a shark would... Most people with at least some education, are now aware we can't wipe out sharks around favorite fishing sites, so that the fisherman don't have their catch stolen by a shark.



Typical over the last 50 years, is that the groups setting the amount of "take" for each species, have allowed much more take than would be ecologically healthy, and so we are constantly seeing a collapse of new fisheries, and we are seeing a tiny fraction of the biomass on a reef or wreck today, than existed back in the 60's or 70's.

I do not think it is appropritate at all to have commercial fisherman having the powerful influence they appear to, on setting "Take" levels for desired species. How this influence is "effected", I can't say, but the results are too obvious to argue.


I was diving the reefs of Palm Beach in the 70's, and I can tell you with absolute certainty, that the fisheries here have been mis-managed in a shameful way. Back in the 70's, grouper would cover the bottom in the way grunts do today. and today, the grouper are almost absent, comparitively speaking. The entire snapper and grouper fisheries have been bungled, and I will not stand by and watch the same special interests decide it is time to "wipe out" the Jewfish again. We have some old videos of the reefs in the old days, shot by Frank Hammett with a 16 mm bolex in the 60's. The visual changes are heart breaking to anyone that cares about the health of our ocean ecosystem.


Back in the 60's and 70's, Palm Beach had massive populations of Jewfish, though it was starting the dwindling in the 70's. Spearfishing buddies of mine, like Frank Hammett, were out shooting every monster fish in sight.
Frank told of the Jewfish back in the 50's and 60's being so thick that dense herds of them would be found even all around the area now known as the Blue Heron Bridge Marine Park--far into the intercoastal.
Before this "resource" was being "managed" by the South Atlantic Marine Fishery, the Jewfish existed in massive natural populations, that had no negative effect on the extremely healthy and enormously larger fish populations of the day.
Absolute incompetence in determining appropriate "take" numbers of each species desirable to fisherman, has led to our marine ecosystem being just a "shell" today, of what it once was.


You might think that our fisheries situation, is analogous, to having the Redwood Forest and Amazon Forest, "Managed" by Logging Companies. The wrong agendas are just too well supported in the present structuring or oversight.



Also, the fisherman have this thing going on for them, like the story of the frog dropped in warm water that is gradually heated to boiling. If they had been dropped in to boiling water, they would have known this was bad, and gone crazy--but the slow heating lulls them into a false sense of security--they just swim lazily along as if nothing is happening. Our population in America ( of people/voters) are much like the frogs in water being slowly heated. Thy mistakenly think there are responsible fisheries in place to protect the future, yet the truth is the fish are decreasing every year, and the rules are created to keep commercial fishing as happy as possible--making as much money as poosible without allowing it to collapse a fishery in a single season.
We sat back in apathetic comas while the Jewfish were fished to near extinction once before, with full approval of the "scientists" which were clearly working for the fisherman.
The fisheries need to be managed for the future of the oceans and for mankind--and this idea that somehow they have learned enough about Goliaths now, so that they can" "manage" this species with a limited take, is enough for me to want to beath the h*ll out of some fisheries "scientists"... people that will never pay for their transgressions against the greater good..... They may rationalize the greater good as feeding as many humans as possible in this decade. I think the greater good is restoring the oceans to bio-levels closer to the 50's. Commercial fleets need to be cut in half, or removed completely in some places, and this would mean destoying some of the commericial seafood industry. Well, they brought this on themselves, and it is time to fix the mistakes of the last 60 years.

I do believe that we should be able to take "some" fish from stocks that are not endangered. Remove much of the commercial pressure by the big operations, and then allow spearfisherman to hunt for themselves, or private fisherman to fish for themselves. We NEED to collapse the commercial fishing industry, at least for a decade, for recovery to occur.

Dan: If you do a little more research, you will find that GG DO have a very real impact on fisherman as they try to land fish. The GG do "steal" many of their fish, so much so that it makes it almost impossible to land fish on certain wrecks at certain times. The GG take almost every fish caught before it can be brought to the surface. So the fact that this is not "normal" and the fact that GG may not be taking a large biomass of these targeted fish may not be so important to some fisherman. This fact does not consitute evidence that the GG stocks should be reduced, but on the other hand, you really can't say that the presence of large numbers of the GG on popular wrecks is not significantly reducing the catch of the fisherman during a particular fishing outing.

As for your commercial fishing rant.. if you would do a little research, I think you will find that the commercial sector is being very tightly regulated. In the last few years the rules and constraints and proceedures that have been implemented have been very strict.

For example, they are working very hard to reduce the number of commercial fisherman in the South Atlantic. If someone wants to get into this business, they are required to buy two existing licenses (no new ones are being issued), After purchase of the two existing licenses, then one is retired or invalidated, expired or whatever term they use. They really ARE trying to reduce the size of the fleet by half.

This year in the Atlantic they have completely shut down the gag grouper commercial fishery stating Oct. 20 and it does not open again until May 1.. a complete closure for OVER 6 consecutive months.. so this action could also be considered "cutting in half" the commercial pressure; relative to a few years ago....

The situation in the Gulf is even more restrictive, with an electronic vessel monitoring system that tracks the vessel ever minute of every day, 365 days a year. Every vessel has what I would describe as a "pinger" which sends a signal out all the time. This device is on all the time, even in port. The federal government is ACTIVELY tracking and recording the location of every vessel all the time.

Every comm vessel has to have a computer on board and report when they leave port, what they are targeting, when they expect to return. Then before they land (several hours before reaching shore) they must again report in to "big brother" and state what species they have aboard and also the weight of each species and also when and where they will land so that they can be subject to a visual census at the time of landing to verify no cheating.

These boats all have a limited annual allocation of lbs of fish they can land each year. Every trip their catch is debited against their annual quota. The annual quota is subject to reduction based on estimates for the total catch of the fishery. The annual IFQ (individual fishing quota) for each boat or license holder is based on a formula that weights previous landing history over a several year period that was reported before the IFQ system was put in place a few years ago. Right now the commercial sector is only allowed to take like 10% of their normal gag grouper IFQ because of the reduced stock of this species.

This is all information that I have picked up by observation and casual discussion with commercial fisherman, so excuse me if I left a few details out or the description of the situation is not perfect. Certainly the regulations are much more complicated and restrictive with a maze of closed seasons for different species than I indicate here.

I offer it as a quick explanation to help people understand that causal comments about commercial fishing needs to be eliminated or "halved" is already taking place over the last few years and that it is extremely tightly regulated, particularly in the Gulf. Reading some of your off the cuff comments might give people the image of a "wild west" type of situation with the fishing fleets, while the real situation is very, very different.

In addition, your entire "commercial fishing rant" is for the most part, irrelevant to the discussion of goliath grouper. There is no consideration of opening up commercial fishing for GG; if anything, it would be of a recreational nature.

 

[danvolker]

Dan: If you do a little more research, you will find that GG DO have a very real impact on fisherman as they try to land fish. The GG do "steal" many of their fish, so much so that it makes it almost impossible to land fish on certain wrecks at certain times. The GG take almost every fish caught before it can be brought to the surface. So the fact that this is not "normal" and the fact that GG may not be taking a large biomass of these targeted fish may not be so important to some fisherman. This fact does not consitute evidence that the GG stocks should be reduced, but on the other hand, you really can't say that the presence of large numbers of the GG on popular wrecks is not significantly reducing the catch of the fisherman during a particular fishing outing.

As for your commercial fishing rant.. if you would do a little research, I think you will find that the commercial sector is being very tightly regulated. In the last few years the rules and constraints and proceedures that have been implemented have been very strict.

For example, they are working very hard to reduce the number of commercial fisherman in the South Atlantic. If someone wants to get into this business, they are required to buy two existing licenses (no new ones are being issued), After purchase of the two existing licenses, then one is retired or invalidated, expired or whatever term they use. They really ARE trying to reduce the size of the fleet by half.

This year in the Atlantic they have completely shut down the gag grouper commercial fishery stating Oct. 20 and it does not open again until May 1.. a complete closure for 6 consecutive months.. so this action could also be considered "cutting in half" the commercial pressure; relative to a few years ago....

The situation in the Gulf is even more restrictive, with an electronic vessel monitoring system that tracks the vessel ever minute of every day, 365 days a year. Every comm vessel has to have a computer on board and report when they leave port, what they are targeting, when they expect to return. Then before they land (several hours before reaching shore) they must again report in to "big brother" and state what species they have aboard and also the weight of each species and also when and where they will land so that they can be subject to a visual census at the time of landing to verify no cheating.

These boats all have a limited annual allocation of lbs of fish they can land each year. Every trip their catch is debited against their annual quota. The annual quota is subject to reduction based on estimates for the total catch of the fishery. The annual IFQ (individual fishing quota) for each boat or license holder is based on a formula that weights previous landing history over a several year period that was reported before the IFQ system was put in place a few years ago. Right now the commercial sector is only allowed to take like 10% of their normal gag grouper IFQ because of the reduced stock of this species.

This is all information that I have picked up by observation and casual discussion with commercial fisherman, so excuse me if I left a few details out or the description of the situation is not perfect. Certainly the regulations are much more complicated and restrictive with a maze of closed seasons for different species than I indicate here.

I offer it as a quick explanation to help people understand that causal comments about commercial fishing needs to be eliminated or "halved" is already taking place over the last few years and that it is extremely tightly regulated, particularly in the Gulf. Reading some of your off the cuff comments might give people the image of a "wild west" type of situation with the fishing fleets, while the real situation is very, very different.

In addition, your entire "commercial fishing rant" is for the most part, irrelevant to the discussion of goliath grouper. There is no consideration of opening up commercial fishing for GG; if anything, it would be of a recreational nature.

First, it would have been worse in the 30's, 40's or 50's for fisherman trying to catch a fish off of a wreck "like" the Mispah, or a reef like the Hole in the Wall area....there would have been many more jewfish and sharks, and the fish making it to the boats, on a line, would become a new feeding game for the jewfish and the sharks.....This would lead fisherman to fish in areas where the Goliaths and sharks were not massively concentrated. That is the solution, not an attempt to wipe out shark or goliath populations that infringe on the enjoyment of fisherman on wrecks used by the Goliaths for aggregation and spawning.

As to this comment by you:

"In addition, your entire "commercial fishing rant" is for the most part, irrelevant to the discussion of goliath grouper. There is no consideration of opening up commercial fishing for GG; if anything, it would be of a recreational nature."​

The same groups that were "supposedly" protecting our grouper and snapper fisheries in the 80's and 90's and the last decade..the same groups that used the wrong conclusions and wrong agendas to allow massively more take and harvesting of desired species that the fisheries could support, determined in the last few years that they made some major mistakes, and they began much more aggressive restrictions--as you mentioned. So now for this group which is always guessing about how it can keep the commercial fishing lobby "somewhat happy", YOU would allow them, with their track record of "Keep it open till it almost collapses" track records..... to "guess" about how many Goliaths they ought to allow to be killed at each major shipwreck site the fisherman would like less shark and Goliath presence at.

I don't think the groups in charge of these decisions for the past 20 years, should be allowed to make this call. Like a logging company controlling the "optimized health" of the Amazon River Basin, this group has the wrong agendas. I am sure it has some good scientists, and some bad scientists....by bad, I mean like the scientists that supported big tobacco in the 60's....always refuting the good science that told the true story of the real health threats.

There are groups with zero allegiance to the commercial seafood industry, that have excellent science they can use to determine whether or not there should be any removal of Goliaths from any of our wrecks. These groups, far outside of the reach and power of the commercial seafood industry, and outside the reach of the South Atlantic Marine Fisheries Commission /Council, would be far less tainted by the poor industry profit choices of the last 50 years .

 

[aue-mike]

Wow. This is entertaining.

 

[100days-a-year]

Jane Lubechenko the current boss at NOAA hence NMFS and SAMFC is a PEW fellow with an en vironmental activist past.Are you seriously suggesting that she is in any way aligned with commercial fishing?The councils have representatives from all user groups and try to accomodate the views everyone expound.It is unfortunate that koolaid drinkers from from both sides resist any rational use.Instead they rail and rant without end.Species that need protection are not given it and valuable species that can sustain i fishing are shut down as a result.Addressing the crisis mentality of awarding grants will help get money out the equation,there should be permanent positions in each state as well as federally that address the science aspect not freelancers making money going from one self enriching crisis to another.
As none of us were actually diving in the 40s and 50s nor is there any credible data on fish populations we have to use what we have.I could document any percieved population level I want as I actually dive 400 times a year from the Marquesa to N. Carolina and know when and where the fish will be.Trusting someone who philosophically is opposed to fishing to regulate it won't work either.