BBP in Brief, Issue 4, April 2005

Nassau Grouper Closed Season Campaign: Bahamians and Others Encouraged to Give Grouper a Break
Casuarina McKinney (BREEF)

This past winter saw the nationwide closure of the Nassau grouper season from December 16, 2004 through February 16, 2005. In addition, the spawning aggregation site off High Cay, Andros, was closed for the entire spawning season.

To promote awareness of the closed season, BREEF has been showing a public service announcement in local cinemas. BREEF and the Bahamas National Trust, along with other conservation organizations, have also been using outreach materials, such as postcards, email announcements, and leaflets to encourage consumers to support Bahamian fishermen through the choice of other fish during the grouper closed season. Alternatively, these groups suggest, through their self-interested spokesfish, “Eat Beef!”

Nassau groupers spend most of the year living on their own, but in the winter they swim hundreds of miles and group together by the thousands in order to spawn. Stocks of Nassau grouper in much of the Caribbean have been rendered commercially extinct as a result of fishermen targeting these spawning aggregations.

The Nassau grouper is now on the World Conservation Union’s (IUCN) Red List of Endangered Species, and it is a candidate for the U.S. Endangered Species List. The Bahamas has some of the last remaining spawning stocks of the Nassau grouper in the wider Caribbean. Other countries are also now protecting their Nassau grouper stocks. Belize has legislated a four-month closed season, and has protected 11 aggregation sites within marine reserves. In December 2003 the Cayman Islands closed their grouper aggregations for the following eight years. Nassau groupers are completely protected in U.S. waters. This closed season protects the Nassau grouper at a critical point in their life cycle when they are most vulnerable. Allowing more fish to successfully spawn at this time means more fish for us to catch and eat later.

The Bahamian public, recognizing that Nassau grouper stocks are threatened and wanting to ensure that they have fish for future generations, have, for the most part, favorably received the closed season. It is critically important that we continue to improve our enforcement so that poachers (both domestic and foreign) are properly dealt with. In order to effectively protect our groupers, The Bahamas should extend the closed season to include at least three months of the spawning period, and this closure should be properly legislated. For further inquiries about BREEF’s efforts in support of grouper closures, contact Casuarina McKinney at casuarina@breef.org.