About 90 feet deep on an artificial reef called the Zion off Jupiter, a group of scuba divers confronted a stunning sight: as many as 70 goliath groupers -- some nearly as large as Mini Coopers -- hovering amid a cloud of shimmering sardines.

The huge, brown mottled fish made no attempt to consume the minnows around them. They milled placidly around the shipwreck until the divers came close. Then a couple of the fish made a deep booming sound like muffled bass drums and hid beneath the broken-up hull. The underwater photographers in the group -- each of whom had paid about $100 for the trip -- were frustrated because none of the subjects would stay in the frame with a diver long enough to lend perspective on its size.

Four days later, at the Florida Fish and Wildlife Conservation Commission meeting in central Florida, commissioners were talking about reopening the fishery for goliath grouper -- closed for the past 19 years -- to a limited, recreational take.

FWC chairman Rodney Barreto told his colleagues he is under intense pressure from members of the public.

``Can we do a tag, a permit system?'' Barreto asked Mark Robson, the agency's saltwater fisheries administrator. ``I'm getting hammered everywhere I go. You've got to do something.''

Added commissioner Ron Bergeron: ``There's an awful lot of them out there. It's a resource we should look at for the benefit of the fishermen.''

Robson said the state is trying to coordinate with officials from NOAA Fisheries and representatives of the Gulf and South Atlantic fishery management councils to do a ``harvest sampling'' -- killing a limited number of fish -- to gather data for a stock assessment by 2013.

Barreto was dismayed.

``I thought we were in the field doing sampling. Here we are three years later not doing any sampling,'' he said. ``Let's turn the volume up. We keep raising the issue and nothing moves.''

Goliath grouper, formerly known as jewfish, is a polarizing species in Florida.

Once a staple of the commercial fishing and diving industries, the giant reef fish were nearly wiped out by spearfishers and hook-and-liners in the late 1980s. In 1990, the federal government put goliath grouper on the prohibited list, and in recent years, populations on the Gulf and Atlantic coasts of Florida have bounced back.

Goliaths have recovered so well that they are being blamed for everything from wiping out lobsters on the reef to preying on plunging populations of grouper and snapper. Recreational and commercial anglers and commercial divers on both coasts are clamoring for their heads.

``People either love them and are fascinated by them, or they hate them,'' said captain Randy Jordan, owner of Jupiter-based Emerald Charters.

Jordan is on the ``love'' side. Each summer and fall, he escorts numerous divers to sites like the Zion and the adjacent wrecks of the Miss Jenny and Bonaire, and to a natural reef known as ``Hole in the Wall'' to observe spawning aggregations of goliaths. Jordan has posted a video on his website, emeraldcharters.com, in which he wrestles with a large goliath to successfully remove an illegal spear from its mouth.

``People come from all over the country to see the aggregation. It's a tremendous source of tourism dollars,'' he said.

Chris Koenig of the Florida State University Coastal and Marine Laboratory in St. Teresa Beach has been studying goliath grouper for more than a decade and recently prepared a report to NOAA Fisheries containing four years of data. Koenig's findings dispute nearly every gobbling-goliath assertion made by fishermen in public meetings and online forums.

Join the discussion

The Miami Herald is pleased to provide this opportunity to share information, experiences and observations about what's in the news. Some of the comments may be reprinted elsewhere in the site or in the newspaper. We encourage lively, open debate on the issues of the day, and ask that you refrain from profanity, hate speech, personal comments and remarks that are off point. In order to post comments, you must be a registered user of MiamiHerald.com. Your username will show along with the comments you post. Thank you for taking the time to offer your thoughts.

     Showing: Oldest first Newest first Most-recommended first Least-recommended first

@Nyx.AuthorDisplayName@ wrote on @Nyx.PostedAtTime@:

@Nyx.repliedToText@

@Nyx.replyAnswerText@

Reply to this Comment @Nyx.Recommender@ @Nyx.AbuseReporter@