Are Groupers Dangerous?

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As far as I know groupers are only dangerous if you eat them. Large groupers in the Carribean are linked to increased risk of Cigautera poisoning.

Otherwise I've never heard of groupers attacking divers, despite over 500 dives all over the Carribean. Groupers elsewhere may be more agressive, but again I've never heard or read anything about it.

In my limited experience the most agressive fishes I've run into are spadefish, Bermuda chubbs and of course damselfishes, which are more annoying than dangerous.
 
While fishing down in the keys a buddy of mine was reeling in a 30 0r so inch grouper, right at the boat a cuda took a bite of it, before the cuda wisked away with its free meal a much larger grouper nailed it on its side at a very high rate of speed.
Go figure when Im down with a gun they dont let me get anywhere near them.
 
Are groupers dangerous? To paraphrase my trash man when I told him my dog wouldn't bite him, "He got teeth, ain't he?"

Anything in the wild can be dangerous. Groupers won't bother you if you don't bother them. I know--I've been face-to-face with a 5' grouper before and he didn't bother me at all.
 
I remember hearing a story about a diver in the gulf who dropped out through the hatch of the bell and had a grouper half swallow him. What ensued was a tug of war between the tender in the bell and the fish in the water, the tender won and the diver escaped with no real damage to anything but his adrenal glands. True, or not, I assume that story circulated in the commercial diving community long enough to create concern.
 
The only threat I felt from the one I had just passed when the picture in my avatar was taken was being poked in the eye by lobster antanae that was sticking out of his mouth. Unfortunately my buddy had my camera to take the picture that's in my Avatar so I couldn't get a picture of it.

And yes, they are scarry delicious.
 
spearfishing them all the time down here (Persian gulf)
 
I agree that if you don't mes with them, they won't mess with you. I spent ten days on vacation in Bonaire this past January. There was a small, shallow-water wreck that we dove several times over the course of our stay. There was a 4'-5' grouper that lived under the wreck and he seemed very timid.
 

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