| Black grouper | |
|---|---|
| Conservation status | |
| Scientific classification | |
| Kingdom: | Animalia |
| Phylum: | Chordata |
| Class: | Actinopterygii |
| Order: | Perciformes |
| Family: | Serranidae |
| Genus: | Epinephelus |
| Species: | E. nigritus |
| Binomial name | |
| Epinephelus nigritus (Holbrook, 1855) |
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The black grouper or warsaw grouper, (Epinephelus nigritus), is a species of fish in the Serranidae family. It is found in Belize, Brazil, Cuba, Haiti, Panama, Trinidad and Tobago, the United States, and possibly Suriname. Its natural habitats are open seas, shallow seas, subtidal aquatic beds, and coral reefs. It is threatened by habitat loss.
The warsaw grouper is a U.S. National Marine Fisheries Service Species of Concern. Species of Concern are those species about which the U.S. Government’s National Oceanic and Atmospheric Administration, National Marine Fisheries Service, has some concerns regarding status and threats, but for which insufficient information is available to indicate a need to list the species under the U.S. Endangered Species Act (ESA).
Contents |
Warsaw groupers are classified as deep-water groupers since they inhabit reefs on the continental shelf break in waters 180 to 1700 feet (55 to 525 m) deep. They are the only grouper with 10 dorsal spines. They are dark reddish brown or brownish grey to almost black in color dorsally, dull reddish grey below.
Adults are usually found on rough, rocky bottoms in depths of 180 to 1700 feet (55 to 525 m); juveniles are occasionally seen on jetties and shallow-water reefs.
The major threat to the Warsaw grouper is mortality from fishing or bycatch release mortality (due to barotraumas – pressure change). Fishing is primarily by hook and line and bottom longlines, though the species is caught incidentally in the deepwater snapper/grouper commercial fishery. Almost all of the catch is in the Gulf of Mexico.
IUCN[1]: Critically Endangered
American Fisheries Society: Endangered
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