Researchers from the Reef Environmental Education Foundation and the Cayman Islands Department of Environment study one of the last great reproductive populations of Nassau Grouper. Normally a solitary species, during the winter full moons Nassau Grouper travel, sometimes over great distances, to “group” together and spawn.

While most of the known spawning sites in the Caribbean have been fished out over the years, the west end of Little Cayman in the Cayman Islands is home to largest known reproductive spawning aggregation of this endangered species.

To put this in perspective there’s the story of a Caymanian fisherman who bragged about fishing the grouper holes to such an extent that after cleaning his catch he left over 100 pounds of grouper eggs (row) on the dock to rot. He was proud of his achievement and (so the story goes) did it again the following year.

There has been verified over-fishing of all 6 known spawning aggregation sites in the Cayman Islands. Three are fished out completely, 2 are in serious decline, and only one—discovered in 2001—has enough members to provide any appreciable replenishment. This last site had over 4,000 spawning Nassau Grouper removed from it, in only 2 years of fishing… and the fishing only occurs over a few days each year (when the grouper gather to spawn on the “grouper moon”.

I remember that year and the stories from friends and family of a market glutted with so many grouper you couldn’t give it away. There  were tales of grouper rotting for lack of freezer space. True or not, the fact is that an island of barely 40 thousand inhabitants doesn’t need that many grouper at one time, nor are there logistics in place to export any. Basically the sheer tonnage of this catch came down to greed.

There seems to be something that happens in the brains of even the most well mannered, reasonable people when they discover such a boon that sheer greed—an atavistic trait from our days as hunter-gatherers, perhaps—seems to overcome us and our brains shut off. It’s similar to putting a teenager behind the wheel of a supped-up Honda, or placing spring breakers on the back of a jet-ski: nothing good can result.

Unfortunately at the time there was no law against such fishing practices (the aggregation site has since been closed to fishing), so we couldn’t lobby to have the culprits publicly flogged. In fact, those responsible didn’t have to pay so much as a nickle (five-cent) in fishing licences. Being Caymanian they could simply take what they wanted, with an ill-deserved sense of entitlement.

Now, I’m a ‘local’, a Caymanian, but this type of behaviour is unconscionable. Luckily some other good folks, like Guy Harvey, also think so and are pushing to have all the spawning sites closed to fishing permanently. I say, YES.

For more on this story go to:

http://flatswalker.com/2012/07/23/grouper-spawning-cayman-islands/