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Plan calls for annual harvest of 200 goliath grouper
Three decades after being placed on a list prohibiting the harvest and possession of goliath grouper, the Florida Fish and Wildlife Conservation commission is considering a plan to allow a limited number of the fish to be harvested in state waters. The commission on Oct. 6 will consider a proposal to allow up to 200 fishing permits a year for goliath grouper.
“Currently, access to the goliath resource is provided through catch-and-release fishing and diving ecotourism opportunities, but requests to reopen harvest have increased in recent years as the population rebuilds,” Jessica McCawley, director of the commission’s Division of Marine Fisheries Management, advised commissioners in a memo in advance of next month's meeting.
Under the proposal, applicants for the “limited, highly regulated harvest” starting in 2023 would have to pay $10 to enter a lottery from which names would be drawn for $500 fishing permits. The harvest would run annually from March 1 through May 31 in state waters outside of Southeast Florida, from Palm Beach County south through the Atlantic coast of Monroe County.
The fish are an ecotourist draw for dive operators in that region. Never listed as endangered, goliath grouper were removed from National Oceanic and Atmospheric Administration’s species of special concern list in 2006 and had their listing improved from “critically endangered” to “vulnerable” in 2018 by the independent International Union for the Conservation of Nature.
Goliath grouper, which can grow to 800 pounds and more than 8 feet in length, had been harvested in state waters since the late 1800s. The largest goliath grouper caught in Florida waters was a 680-pound fish caught off Fernandina Beach in 1961. Aside from overfishing, the species is susceptible to large-scale mortality events such as cold temperatures and red tide blooms.
“This proposal will allow users additional access opportunities, protect areas of heavy dive ecotourism, and provide researchers with needed biological data while allowing the population to continue to rebuild,” McCawley wrote.
“This approach would allow FWC to continue to manage this fishery for a diversity of values and recognize goliath’s important role in the ecosystem.”
