Koenig to lecture March 18 on goliath grouper

The Coastal & Marine Conservation Lecture Series will present “Goliath Grouper: The Return of a Native Floridian” on Thursday, March 18 from 7 to 9 p.m. in the Florida State University Coastal & Marine Auditorium.

The lecture will be presented by Christopher Koenig, PhD, of the Florida State University Department of Biological Sciences. Light refreshments will be served after the lecture.

Goliath grouper (Epinephelus itajara), a species indigenous to the southeastern U.S., the Caribbean, Brazil, and the west coast of Africa has been overfished to the extent that the World Conservation Union has classified it as “critically endangered.” The species was protected in the southeastern U.S. in 1990 through action by the Gulf of Mexico Fishery Management Council and the South Atlantic Fishery Management Council, the National Marine Fisheries Service, and the Florida Fish and Wildlife Conservation Commission.

Since that time there has been a steady recovery, especially in Florida. Koenig found that high-quality mangroves, such as exist in the Ten Thousand Islands, a chain of islands and mangrove islets off the coast of Southwest Florida, are critical to the first six years of their development. However, because of the degraded state of most South Florida mangroves, population recovery appears to depend in large part on the Ten Thousand Islands and adjacent areas.

Koenig will present the results of studies on the patterns of recovery and the ecology of goliath grouper in Florida, including regional densities, habitat characteristics, movements, diet, and spawning biology. He will also contrast his researcher’s data with the current opinions circulating in the fishing community about the effects of the increasing goliath grouper population on other native species.

The FSU marine lab, in association with Second Harvest of the Big Bend, part of "The Nation's Food Bank Network," is collecting non-perishable food items at each monthly lecture. If you plan to attend a lecture, please bring an item or two and help solve the hunger crisis in our community.