The recovery of the Goliath grouper species has been touted as one of the greatest fisheries success stories in recent history.

State and federal fishery managers granted protected status to the large lumbering fish in 1990. Their population was so low at the time there was no opposition to banning fishing for them. The species, which anglers currently can catch and release, has since been brought back from the brink of extinction.

Commercial fishermen complain the success has come at a price to other fisheries. They say Goliath groupers have taken over the reefs and are devouring lobster, small snappers and other fish. They want fishery managers to allow some restricted fishing for them, which would allow scientists to assess the population and collect data from specimens.

The Florida Fish and Wildlife Conservation Commission (FWC) was scheduled to assess their population in 2014, but fisheries biologists have asked to expedite the study to next year to determine whether the anecdotal information is true that Goliath groupers have rebounded and are affecting other fish populations.

The FWC board is expected to approve the 2010 study when it meets in Clewiston on Dec. 10.

Easy prey

Goliath groupers were easy targets for fishermen for decades. Hook-and-line fishermen slaughtered them at a rate some liken to hunters wiping out buffalo in the United States in the late 1800s.

Commercial fishermen used the meat for everything from bait to human consumption. The large fish made great photo opportunities for recreational fishermen who chartered boats for the day. The black and white photos, which still line the walls of many Florida Keys marinas, restaurants and historic buildings, were free advertising for charter captains, who proudly stood next to as many as a dozen dead Goliath groupers at a time.

"People killed them because they could," said Chris Koenig, a research scientist and Florida State University marine biology professor. "They killed them wholesale. I watched them do it."

With improvements to spear guns and diving equipment in the 1960s and 1970s, there was no wreck, cave or hole where Goliath groupers could hide. They have few natural predators and little fear of divers.

Commercial fisherman and diver Don DeMaria is among those who preyed on Goliath groupers to make a living, stalking them with his spear gun for years, he said. DeMaria also was one of the first to ask for their protection and believes the ban on taking them should stay in place, calling them "critically" endangered.

"They are special," he said. "The Florida Keys are running out of special natural attractions. Our reef is close to dead and our water quality has gone to hell. Goliath groupers are one of our few natural attractions we have in the Keys, and the (FWC) commission should recognize it as such."

The fish's enormous size, slow growth, low reproductive rate and spawning behavior have made them especially susceptible to overfishing. They do not spawn for the first six to seven years of their lives, making recovery for the species slow, Koenig said.

Exploitation of their annual spawning sites greatly reduced the number of reproducing adults, according to the Florida Museum of Natural History.

The ban came in "response to indications that the population abundance throughout its range was greatly depressed," according to the federal protection law. The initial emergency rule became permanent, and the ban was extended throughout Caribbean waters in 1993.

No one knows exactly how many are left compared to their historical numbers, but the Goliath grouper is recognized as a "critically endangered" species by the International Union for Conservation of Nature (IUCN). The species throughout the world has been "observed, estimated, inferred or suspected" of a reduction of at least 80 percent during the last 10 years, according to IUCN, the world's oldest and largest global environmental network.

In one of the fish's home ranges off Africa, the species is "pretty much" extinct, Koenig said. When Florida and the federal government banned taking them, they were "commercially extinct," the point at which there were so few that commercial fishermen could not catch enough to be profitable, DeMaria said.

The FWC and other fishing regulatory agencies several years ago discussed catching and dissecting 400 Goliath groupers for a population study and other research, but scientists argued the number was too high and the proposal died, FWC fisheries biologist Bill Teehan said.

Debate begins

A debate over allowing Goliath grouper fishing has become more heated in the past few years, as commercial fishermen blame them for a reduction in the number of lobsters. Recreational charter boat fishermen also have complained that the fish are gobbling up yellowtail snappers and other sought-after fish.

Fishermen say their numbers are high enough to warrant taking some. Uppers Keys fisherman Capt. Billy Kelly recently received a report of 40 Goliath groupers, weighing 20 to 200 pounds, spotted under the Whale Harbor Bridge in Islamorada. Kelly, who has served on federal fishing council advisory panels, could not say whether the species was ready to have the protections removed.

"We are seeing a resurgence, but they are still vulnerable to fishing pressure," Kelly said.

Kelly wants to see more scientific study before the fishery is reopened. Certain minimum size limits would have to be established, as the fish take so long to reproduce, he said.

Middle Keys lobster fisherman Tony Iarocci argued the numbers have reached a point where fishery managers can allow fishing for them. He echoed complaints that they're eating all the lobsters.

"Enough is enough," Iarocci said. "I think there is enough out there that you could do a limited opening."

Fish parts could be donated to scientists for research. Fishermen also could be involved in obtaining weights and other measurements, Iarocci said. But it would require the entire industry -- recreational and commercial -- working together.

"All sectors are willing to do what is right for the fish," he said. "All the data would go toward research."

Humane research

Koenig said he and other researchers are conducting critical research on Goliath groupers without killing them, though he is not opposed to fishing and spear fishing, which he did growing up in Palm Beach County.

Koenig has been able to obtain life history data by placing tags on Goliath groupers and taking small muscle samples from the fins. He also has recently applied for grant funding to teach recreational and charter boat captains how to collect data safely if they catch and release a Goliath grouper.

Koenig also argues that simply allowing fishermen to catch them without strict parameters on where and how many should be caught would do little good for science.

Many Goliath groupers start their lives in mangrove habitats, before moving to coral reefs, wrecks and other areas offshore. Koenig fears that fishermen, who would be involved in obtaining data, would target the wrecks and reefs only, as they are easy spots to catch them, making the data not as representative of the species as a whole and not as useful.

Koenig also argued that fishery managers also should take into account the financial effect an open fishery would have on charter dive operators. Many dive operators take their clients to wrecks and other areas inhabited by Goliath groupers, as their sheer size amazes many divers.

"There are a lot of aspects to this that have to be considered," Koenig said.

tohara@keysnews.com