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MORGAN_PHOTOSTORY_09

The focus of my photostory is on the iconic Atlantic Goliath grouper, Epinephelus itajara. Once on the brink of extinction due to overfishing in mid-20th century, the species has been protected since 1990 allowing for slow recovery of the population. However, there are current progressions within the Florida government to allow for a limited harvest of the species despite significant resistance from the general scientific community and the diving eco-tourism industry. Although they can be locally known as a long lived species with high site fidelity on natural and artificial wrecks, they are also known to make regional migrations to form spawning aggregations during July-October. These aggregations make a special spectacle to the diving community, but also make the populations highly susceptible to recreational sport fishers. Additionally, there is special interest in their response to anthropogenic interactions. Recreational fishing capture is becoming an increasingly popular sport fishery, so researchers are trying to understand how the species respond to repeated capture and barotrauma. Barotrauma is a negative physiological reaction to rapid pressure changes that often occur when an animal is pulled to the surface from depth during capture, driven by gasses inflating in swim bladders.

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Filename
Legends_ledge.jpg
Copyright
Clark Morgan
Image Size
2048x1365 / 3.0MB
Contained in galleries
Fishes
The focus of my photostory is on the iconic Atlantic Goliath grouper, Epinephelus itajara. Once on the brink of extinction due to overfishing in mid-20th century, the species has been protected since 1990 allowing for slow recovery of the population. However, there are current progressions within the Florida government to allow for a limited harvest of the species despite significant resistance from the general scientific community and the diving eco-tourism industry. Although they can be locally known as a long lived species with high site fidelity on natural and artificial wrecks, they are also known to make regional migrations to form spawning aggregations during July-October. These aggregations make a special spectacle to the diving community, but also make the populations highly susceptible to recreational sport fishers. Additionally, there is special interest in their response to anthropogenic interactions. Recreational fishing capture is becoming an increasingly popular sport fishery, so researchers are trying to understand how the species respond to repeated capture and barotrauma. Barotrauma is a negative physiological reaction to rapid pressure changes that often occur when an animal is pulled to the surface from depth during capture, driven by gasses inflating in swim bladders.