Grouper

Grouper

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General

Coral fish

Coral fish is a collective name for the brightly coloured fish living in tropical and subtropical waters. Demand for this type of fish is not significant in the Netherlands. Species that can be found at the Dutch market are parrotfish, snappers, lionfish and doctorfish.

Often, it is very difficult to trace back the origin and fishing methods of these fish. Additionally, regulation and management of the fisheries can be very poor in countries of origin. Catches are not registered and there is little control on fishing methods. The use of cyanide and dynamite to fish on the reefs are common methods. This is extremely detrimental to the ecological status of the reefs and the entire ocean.

The term grouper is a collective name for different species of grouper, such as the red grouper, the Nassau grouper and the black grouper. These species have a stout body and a large mouth. Groupers can reach lengths of up to more than 1 m and weigh up to 100 kilograms. Most species live in shallow sub-tropical and tropical coastal waters on rocky substrates and coral reefs in the western Atlantic Ocean and the Caribbean Sea.

Grouper

Epinephelus spp., Mycteroptera spp.

Origin

Worldwide

Farming- / Catch method

Trawls, Dynamite and cyanide

Fish stocks and fishing pressure

Ecosystem effects

Fishery management

Final assessment

Explanation assessment

The vulnerability to [fishing pressure] of groupers varies enormously with the species. One of the factors that makes groupers vulnerable to fishing pressure is the spawning in schools. This makes them an easy target for fishermen. Groupers have a high market value and are mainly caught in development countries by small-scale fishermen.

Two of the used catching methods are disastrous for the ecosystem: fishing with dynamite and cyanideCyanide:
Cyanide fishing is a technique where dynamite or cyanide is used to seduce or kill fish so that they float above the seabed. This technique is widely used in coral reefs and is very harmful to the environment.. Coral reefs are left as lifeless areas by those methods. Besides those, groupers are also occasionally caught with trawl nets. This also damages the corals and has a large amount of bycatch of e.g. sea turtles.

The fishery management for groupers is done on national level. In most countries there are, whether or not season-bound, [closed areas] and regulations for mesh size. Individual management per fishery often lacks. In the majority of South-east Asia, the fishing with dynamite and cyanide is forbidden, but supervision and enforcement shows to be difficult in practice.

Grouper

General

Coral fish

Grouper

Grouper

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