Goliath Grouper

The Atlantic goliath grouper is among the largest bony fish, reaching about 2.5 meters and 363 kilograms, with a brownish-yellow to greenish body scattered with small black spots. It ranges the western Atlantic from northeastern Florida through the Gulf of Mexico, the Caribbean, and south to Brazil, with a separate eastern Pacific population from Mexico to Peru. Juveniles shelter for five to six years in mangrove nurseries before moving to the rocky reefs, wrecks, and oil platforms adults prefer, where they ambush slow-moving prey such as stingrays and catfish. Decades of fishing pressure drove the species to Critically Endangered before a long moratorium allowed its 2011 reclassification to Vulnerable.