Goliath Grouper Back on the Menu

I don't think it's giants, I heard John Skinner talking about it, I think it's going to be the smaller goliaths that will be targeted.
I could be wrong though.
 
Caught a few, years ago. Last time there, they were more of an annoyance targeting other species. They make some spots unfishable. I wonder how Floridians feel about the fishery opening up.
 
The goliaths do need thinning out in certain areas. They eat a huge amount, including many of the fish anglers are bringing to the boat. But the giants can be wiped out very quickly. So the harvest has to be very well controlled and tightly monitored. BTW the giants taste awful from what the old timers say.
 
They're talking about a stamp for $500 per fish. There is so much demand that they're considering a lottery to even get a shot at a keeper.

The offshore trips here are getting pricey, just worth the cost of fuel. But there are plenty of people that will pay that. Especially with the price of red grouper now at $37 a pound.
 
George, I am puzzled. Aside from the obvious thrill of catching a Grouper that large, if they are poor table fare why would someone want to cough up $500 to keep one? To mount on a wall?

With the price of Red Grouper at that number I am afraid to ask what a Grouper dinner would cost at the local restaurants.
 
I think the "smaller", 100-200 lb, fish will make their way into the restaurants. With those kind of prices, one fish will cover the stamp AND quite a few trips, especially for the GGs since they're all over the place inshore.

Regardless, with grouper prices that high we'll be seeing this early 2000s issue back in the news...

Florida restaurants fight off fake grouper
Posted 11/21/2006 10:44 PM ET
​
By Matt Reed, FLORIDA TODAY
MELBOURNE, Fla. — There's something fishy going on with grouper in Florida.
Diners paying $9 or more for what they think is a sandwich made with fresh, wild-grouper filets sometimes are eating imported farm-raised fish from Southeast Asia that is worth about $5-$6, Florida officials and fishing-industry leaders say.

Local fishing interests have complained of being undercut by unsavory importers, and state and U.S. authorities have begun to clamp down with inspections, DNA testing and even indictments.

"It seems like the biggest problems have been in the restaurants," said Terence McElroy, spokesman for the state Department of Agriculture & Consumer Services. "There's hardly a restaurant in Florida that doesn't sell a grouper sandwich."

Diners might not be able to look at a breaded filet and tell the difference, but the taste should be a give away, said Bob Nunn, owner of the Direct Seafood, a wholesale business in Melbourne.

"Real grouper, it'll almost taste like chicken — it almost won't taste fishy," Nunn said. Cheaper whitefish from Asia will have little taste at all, he said.

The economics of grouper have come to a head this month. The National Oceanic and Atmospheric Administration is poised to release a key update on the population of gag grouper in the Gulf of Mexico, which could change fishing limits and, in turn, further tighten the supply of the tourist-favorite fish.

As President Bush prepared for talks in Vietnam last week, organizations such as the Catfish Institute in Jackson, Miss., complained that mislabeling fish from Southeast Asia as grouper or snapper is way to skirt anti-dumping laws.

This is not the first time there have been reports of mislabeled fish. A European fish known as zander was sold in Minnesota and Wisconsin as walleye and perch. Also, the U.S. Food and Drug Administration has warned that salmon listed on menus as "wild" sometimes turns out to be farm-raised salmon that producers dyed pink.

It's unclear how much bogus grouper has made its way to Florida restaurants, but developments in the past few months provide an indication of the problem's scope:

•In May, a federal grand jury indicted two Panama City, Fla., importers and several Vietnamese catfish suppliers for packaging more than a million pounds of catfish filets and labeling them as wild-caught grouper.

•The same week in Hialeah, Fla., inspectors for the state Department of Agriculture & Consumer Services intercepted nearly 8,000 pounds of Vietnamese farm-raised broadhead filets (in the catfish family) that were packaged and labeled as more expensive Florida fish. Inspectors watched workers pull filets from boxes labeled "catfish" and put them into boxes labeled "grouper."

A state laboratory also keeps DNA profiles of grouper and compares those to samples taken from restaurants, McElroy said.

Although enforcement efforts in Florida mostly have targeted importers and wholesalers, fraud can happen at all stages of the supply chain, including restaurants that knowingly buy substitute fish, said Bob Jones, executive director of the Southeastern Fisheries Association in Tallahassee, Fla.

With available fisheries, catch limits and the challenge of hooking grouper, U.S. fishermen couldn't possibly produce as much of the fish in a year as Florida restaurants appear to sell, Jones said.
 
I agree, Roccus, that with those kinds of dollars as motivation many of the bad actors will be trying to cash in.

Although you cite this story from 20 years ago, we all know that mislabeling, whether intentional or not, has been going on in the seafood industry for as long as any of us have been fishing. Hey, if it "tastes like chicken" it must be something good and expensive! :ROFLMAO:
 
I dont think any goliath grouper will make it to the restaurants. Seems idiotic to open up a commercial fishery for a fish that has been protected for so long. Increase the quota for Red snapper first!

As far as eating fish out, I have 2 places that I know and trust. I wont eat fish anywhere else!
 
It's not for commercials and won't be sold. It looks like the fish will be between 25 -100 pounds and cost approx $500 per fish! It going to be less than 100 total fish shop I don't see it making was dent in the population while generating income at the same time.

An average 6 pack grouper trip is over $2k plus a fuel surcharge and everyone is booked into April. They will sell those out in a heartbeat. The irony is that they supposedly aren't that tastey.
 

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