.

>>Major funding for this
program was provided

by the Batchelor Foundation,
encouraging people to preserve

and protect America's
underwater resources.

>>NARRATOR:
It's an imposing fish,

sure to inspire awe
in those who see it.

At a time when other large fish
are rapidly disappearing

from the world's oceans,
this giant is making a comeback

in Florida.

>>It's a unique feeling
to be able to get close

to a marine animal
that's as big as you.

>>NARRATOR:
This is the goliath grouper,

a fish once almost hunted
to extinction.

>>It's like going to a park
where you never saw a bear

for years and years,
and now you see

a dozen big grizzly bears,

I mean it's an impressive thing
to see.

>>NARRATOR:
But the goliath's return

is not a welcome sight to all.

>>Both spear fishermen and rod
and reel fishermen believe

the goliath grouper is eating
everything on the reef

and is destroying the ecosystem.

>>NARRATOR: But what does
the scientific data show?

Are goliaths' really
overpopulating the reef?

Or is this species just now
beginning to recover?

>>NARRATOR:
They are an impressive sight,

the largest fish on the reef.

They can weigh
up to 1,000 pounds

and exceed seven feet in length.

Goliath grouper, which used
to be known as jewfish,

historically were found from
as far north as the Carolinas,

across the Caribbean
and south to Brazil.

The fish can also be found
off the west coast of Africa,

and a distinct subspecies exists
in the Pacific.

Today, they are considered
critically endangered

by the International Union
for Conservation of Nature.

>>Everywhere except the
southeastern United States,

they are indeed
critically endangered.

Of course, they're protected
throughout

all U.S. possessions:
Puerto Rico,

the Virgin Islands, as well as
southeastern United States.

They were on the threatened
species list, but they have

been since taken off that list
because their population

in the southeastern
United States

is on the road to recovery.

>>NARRATOR: Goliaths are
a shallow water species,

rarely found at depths
below 200 feet.

They need water temperatures
above 60 degrees Fahrenheit

to survive,
which limits their range.

And for the most part,
they are curious,

but shy creatures.

They often retreat
to their favorite hideout

when humans approach.

>>These are animals
that don't move much.

They sit.

They love wrecks.

They love caves.

They love any kind of structure

that typically has an overhead
for them.

It gives them a sense
of security, I suppose.

>>Basically, I kind of joke
about calling them

the "couch potatoes"
of the grouper family.

>>They don't even eat
every day.

>>NARRATOR: Aside from
their tremendous size,

divers and fishermen
can easily distinguish goliaths

from other grouper species
by the brown stripes

along the sides of their bod

and their distinctive
rounded tail fin.

Recreational fishermen
have long enjoyed

Florida's waters for the
impressive catches they yield,

which used to include
goliath grouper.

Historical photographs
show proud anglers posing beside

their massive catches,
fish larger than themselves.

In those days,
the resource seemed endless.

>>The wrecks offshore,
at 100, 150 feet probably had

over 100 jewfish each on them.

They were just absolutely
packed.

>>NARRATOR:
Don Demaria, who used to work

as a commercial fisherman,
says goliath grouper

are an easy target.

He started spearing them
commercially in the late 1970s

on remote wrecks
in the Gulf of Mexico.

>>We'd catch most of these
jewfish between Key West

and Tampa, mostly off
the Fort Myers area.

There seemed to be the biggest
concentration of them.

And we'd bring them back
and sell them in Key West.

In Key West it was always a
local delicacy among the conchs.

>>NARRATOR: Don and
his colleagues discovered

that goliath grouper tend
to aggregate around

certain wrecks and ledges
in the summertime.

>>That's when they
aggregated to spawn,

which was the ultimate downfall
of the fishery is that

they aggregate in these
large groups.

>>NARRATOR: With the advent of
modern-day navigation devices,

fishermen could soon locate
these aggregation sites

easily in the offshore waters
of the Gulf.

>>But over the years
more and more people got into it

and it didn't take much.

Very little extra pressure
and I saw spawning aggregations

go from 100 fish down
to in one case just one fish,

other areas none.

One of these wrecks
was the "California."

This wreck had an unbelievable
amount of fish on it,

way over 100.

And I went there after
a charter dive boat

and it was just sickening
what we saw.

There were fish swimming around
with spears in their sides.

Others had big hook and line
like broken chain-type rigs

where they had broken off.

And it's my understanding
they took something like 30 fish

back to Marco Island,
these fish would average

about 200 pounds each,
took their photographs with them

and didn't have enough ice
for the fish

and they ultimately it just got
wasted.

>>NARRATOR:
That was in the late 1980s.

Don and his friends decided
to take action.

>>Don knew so much about
goliath grouper behavior

and populations
and it was just amazing.

And thank god he became
a conservationist because

he could have probably
wiped them out by himself.

And he actually went to the
fishery management councils

and said, "You've got to stop
fishing on this species;

can't take this level
of fishing; it's going

to be completely annihilated."

When you have a commercial
fisherman that comes up to you

and says, "save this fish"
you pay attention to it.

And I would say that he

single-handedly convinced
people.

That's not usually the way
it happens.

It usually takes a long time

before there's
scientific evidence

that a population is in trouble.

>>There were people
locally that grumbled about it,

but there was just so few fish
left that there

just wasn't much opposition.

>>NARRATOR: And so, in 1990,
the goliath grouper fisher

was closed in U.S. waters.

Today, the harvest
of this species

is a second degree misdemeanor
that carries a fine.

A few years after the closure,
marine ecologists

Dr. Felicia Coleman
and Dr. Chris Koenig

began studying the life history
of these giant fish.

The husband and wife team,

who work at the coastal
and marine laborator

at Florida State University have
conducted a number of studies

over the years to gain a better
understanding of the species.

To collect their data scientists
spend many hours at sea.

Chris works closely with
local captains and fishermen

who often have an intimate
knowledge of the sites

where the grouper can be found.

One of them is Tony Grogan,
who operates a popular website

for spear fishermen.

Tony often volunteers his boat
to take scientists

into the field.

>>I'm a big advocate
of good science

and sound fisheries
management decisions.

>>NARRATOR: In recent years,
goliath grouper have again

started to aggregate on wrecks

and ledges near
Jupiter, Florida,

close to where Tony lives.

By the 1960s,
most of the goliaths

along South Florida's Atlantic
Coast had been fished out,

so it is very encouraging to see
the animals return.

To collect valuable data
about the fish,

the grouper need to be
brought up to the surface.

Usually, Chris sets a hand line
to capture the goliaths,

but on this trip Tony
and his friends came up

with another idea.

>>We're actually fishing,
hook and line,

long line underwater
and we're using a lift bag,

to send the goliath grouper up.

We tie off the lift bag
away from the wreck,

so we can catch them and
prevent them from running back

into the wreck,
and very carefully send them

up on the lift bag.

Cool, they got one.

Look over there!

>>Good job, Jim.

>>NARRATOR: Once the fish
is on the surface,

it needs to be brought up
to the boat for a work-up.

This particular goliath grouper
is relatively small

and therefore easier to handle.

Chris can tell how old the fish
is by removing parts

of its dorsal fin ray.

>>That's the so-called
soft ray.

It lays down rings
like the rings of a tree

and so we can estimate
age of the fish.

>>NARRATOR:
Traditionally, fish are aged

by looking at the rings
found in their ear bones.

But since this would require
killing the fish,

Chris and Felicia discovered
that taking a piece

of the dorsal fin ray
works just as well.

>>We felt like it was
very important not to sacrifice

those fish.

You can remove the rays from
the fish and they can re-grow.

You can go back and check on
a number of different things

like growth rate
of individual fish,

if you can repeatedly capture
the same individual.

>>NARRATOR: Historically,
goliath grouper can live

to be at least 37 years old,

but because of the severe
fishing pressures in the past,

the current population
is still relatively young.

>>All of the individuals
we've looked at are under 18,

which is the time of the fishery
closure in 1990.

So their population
was clearly beat way, way back.

>>NARRATOR:
Next, it's time to analyze

the stomach contents
of the fish.

This is done by inserting
a metal tube into the mouth

of the fish, and pulling out
whatever food may be

in the fish's stomach.

>>By and large,
they're eating crabs, shrimp,

they're eating some lobster.

They're eating stingrays
and things like that.

Now that just gives you
a snapshot of what

the fish just ate.

>>NARRATOR: To really get
a comprehensive look

at the diet of the fish,
scientists need to conduct

a chemical analysis
of tissue samples.

>>And what you're looking for
there is a signal or a signature

that tells you what the diet
is made up.

So the studies that we've done
on goliath grouper

strongly indicate that
these guys eat crustaceans,

not fish primarily.

>>NARRATOR: Having this kind
of data is not only interesting

from a scientific standpoint,
but it also helps to shed light

on a big controversy
that has been brewing

since the number of goliaths'
has gone up again

in Florida waters.

>>A lot of the fishermen
are under the impression

that goliath grouper
are destroying the reefs

by focusing on feeding
on the other grouper

and snapper species,
leaving fewer for them to fish.

Now an equally plausible
explanation for what they think

is happening is that all
of the grouper and snapper

have basically been fished out.

And the reason they're seeing
goliath grouper is because

it's a protected species and so
that's what's left on the reef.

There's no question
that they're opportunistic.

If they see a fish going by
on a hook or piece of bait,

they'll take it.

>>NARRATOR:
But, Felicia says,

snapper and other grouper
species do not seem to be

their preferred diet.

Once all the scientific data
has been collected,

and the fish has been tagged,
it is time to release it.

>>We're going to lower it.

>>We've tagged thousands
of fish over the last

ten or 12 years, and we find
the same fish on the same rock

year after year after year.

And that's not to say
that the fish don't move.

When sex comes into the picture,
they'll go 100 miles

and participate
in spawning events,

but they'll come back
to the same rock.

>>NARRATOR: Scientists aren't
sure how these fish know where

to join up for these
annual aggregations

that have been documented
in the Gulf of Mexico

during the late summer months.

In recent years, the fish
have also been gathering

in the Atlantic, near Jupiter.

It is suspected that these might
be spawning sites as well,

and to test that hypothesis,
Tony and the scientists

head back out later in the day
to study the aggregation sites.

But will they be able to gather
goliath grouper eggs,

the ultimate proof that spawning
is taking place?

>>The information that
we've gotten from studies

done on sound output
by goliath grouper

during spawning indicate
that they spawn around

a new moon on dark nights,

somewhere between midnight
and 3:00 AM in the morning.

And this is evidence, as I said,
but we don't have any real proof

that they're doing this,
and proof would constitute

collecting their
fertilized eggs.

>>NARRATOR: Chris deploys
plankton nets in the water

at night, in hopes of catching
some eggs.

Meanwhile, his colleague,
Jim Locascio,

who studies fish acoustics,
prepares to deploy a hydrophone

in the vicinity of the nets.

>>The dominant sounds tonight
in this environment

are probably going to be
by the goliath grouper

at an expected
spawning location.

Sounds produced by many
species of fish are done so

in a specific behavioral
context, most often

it's associated with courtship
and spawning.

And in most cases,
almost without exception

it is the male that produces
the sound,

courting advertising,
for a female.

This is a hydrophone
that is connected to the top

of the housing and it is just
like an underwater microphone;

it is going to be
recording ambient sounds

in a frequency range
that is within the sounds

made by the goliath grouper,
which is quite low,

below 100 hertz
about 40 or 50 hertz,

very low frequencies.

>>All right,
it's on the bottom, Tony.

>>NARRATOR: If this location
is indeed a spawning site,

the dominant sounds recorded

should be those
of the goliath grouper.

Goliath grouper are famous
for the very loud booming sounds

they make-- not just to attract
potential mates--

but also as a defense mechanism

to scare off
potential predators.

>>They're very deep resonating
booms and they make them

with their swim bladder
and muscles that are attached

to the swim bladder.

They vibrate those muscles
at a rapid speed,

say 100 times a second
or in that range.

The closest thing I can liken it
to on land is like a sonic boom.

>>Oftentimes divers are able
to feel the sound

before they hear it.

And you feel it in your lungs,
it's a concussion

from that pressure.

And so it's quite intimidating
as a diver if you aren't aware

the fish is around.

>>They do not appear to have
a diverse vocabulary,

that is the sounds
that are produced

when divers approach them
also seems to be the same sounds

that they produce with
and amongst each other.

>>NARRATOR:
Now it's time to sit and wait.

Early the next morning...

>>Just keep pulling.

>>NARRATOR:
...Chris and Jim retrieve

the nets and hydrophone.

Once ashore, the nets
are washed down

and their contents put through
a sieve.

>>It's fairly easy to separate
the eggs from other plankton.

And then, because of their stage
of development and their size,

we should be able to select
goliath grouper eggs

from whatever else we catch
because they should be

in very early stages
of development

when we pull our nets.

>>NARRATOR: While Chris
is taking a close look

at the plankton under
the microscope,

Jim analyzes the sound
he recorded on location.

>>We recorded a lot
of low frequency pulse sounds

that you can see
as the brighter signals

along the bottom of the picture
here of the spectrogram

and most of this energy is at
100 hertz or below 100 hertz.

So there's a series
of individual calls

that we can zoom in on
and look closely at

and identify the fish
as a goliath grouper.

>>NARRATOR:
Jim's sound recordings indicate

that the scientists documented
a spawning aggregation.

But the ultimate proof
is in the eggs,

thousands of which Chris
collected in his nets.

Later DNA tests of these eggs
confirmed what scientists

were hoping for: that goliath
grouper are spawning again

on Florida's east coast.

Once the fertilized eggs hatch,
the larvae will float

in the plankton for about
a month and a half.

>>They hatch out probably
in a day and a half.

But when they hatch out,
they don't have any mouths

and they don't have any eyes.

So, they're simply
floating around,

still living off
of their yolk material.

And over the next week or so,
they develop mouth and eyes

and they learn how to feed.

And then there's the growth
period, and by the time

they settle, they're about
three-quarters of an inch

in total length.

They undergo this metamorphosis
that takes about a week,

and then they're little groupers

and they live in the
mangrove leaf litter

in the earliest stages
and then move to the undercuts

in the mangrove habitat.

>>NARRATOR: The fish will spend
their juvenile years

in the mangrove forests
using the mangrove's prop roots

as protective cover
from potential predators.

North America's largest
remaining mangrove forest

is in the Ten Thousand Islands
area of southwest Florida,

the main stronghold
for juvenile goliath grouper.

>>We lost 28% of the mangroves
in the 10,000 islands area

just between the mid-'80s
and the mid-'90s.

That's a significant loss,
considering it went on

since the beginning of the 1900s
for mosquito abatement,

for agriculture,
for just development

of all of south Florida.

The east coast essentially
has no mangroves

of consequence anymore.

So there's a tight connection
between the habitat availabilit

and the success of this species.

>>NARRATOR: And it's not just
availability of juvenile habitat

that matters, but the quality
of that habitat

is important as well.

>>Water quality
for goliath grouper,

like most species, is important.

It's particularly an issue
in the juvenile habitat.

We looked at them
in a really pristine area

in the Ten Thousand Islands,
which is just incredible;

but there are a number
of rivers and canals

that lead into that body
of water.

For one reason or another,
the water quality is very poor.

And what happens in those areas
is that the densit

of goliath grouper
is not very high.

So if you think about
how you want to go about

protecting a species
like goliath grouper,

it takes more than closing down
the fishery.

You need to protect
the quality of water,

the extent of the habitat,
and keep fishing at a minimum.

>>NARRATOR: Goliath grouper
are easy to exploit.

They aren't difficult to catch,
and they can be found

in large groups during
the summer aggregations.

>>They're relatively slow
to mature.

They're staying in the mangroves
for five or six years.

And when they first go offshore,

they're not necessarily mature
at that time.

And yet, you're talking about

an animal that's
50, 60, 70 pounds

and it's still a juvenile.

>>They become sexually mature
at about four feet in length.

And so, they become sexually
mature as a function of size,

rather than age.

>>NARRATOR:
While some grouper species

change sex during
their lifetime,

Chris and Felicia say
no such evidence exists

for the goliath grouper.

Scientists and many others are
excited that the goliath grouper

population is on the road
to recovery.

Walt Stearns is a professional
photographer,

who also publishes
an online magazine

called "Underwater Journal."

His career has taken him
to underwater locations

all over the world,
and he is delighted to see

the fish make such a steady
comeback in Florida.

>>At the same time
I was working for dive magazines

covering central and southern
Caribbean and the Bahamas,

and I'm watching all grouper
populations just diminish.

Each time I went back I'd see
less of them, see smaller fish.

And here I'm seeing
the goliath grouper come back.

This is incredible to see
protection work.

>>NARRATOR: Unfortunately,
not everyone shares his view.

Some fishermen not only claim
the grouper are eating

all their game fish,
but they also accuse the species

of being aggressive
towards them.

>>I've never had any of them
get aggressive.

But, you know, some people will
sit there and give these stories

and it's like, "It came out and
grabbed me and grabbed my arm

and shook me like a rag doll."

And I was like, really?

I've never had that happen yet.

I mean, they're big enough
and strong enough

where they physically
can really hurt you,

but for the most part
they're big babies.

>>NARRATOR: On his web site,
Spearboard.com,

Tony hears from folks
on all sides of the issue.

>>The internet is a big, wild
and wooly place,

and there are opinions all over.

What I try to do is just take
the middle road

and ask questions about
do we know enough

to make an intelligent decision

about any kind of fishery
management decision.

>>NARRATOR: Both scientists
Felicia and Chris agree

that while the grouper's
recovery is encouraging,

it is too early to reopen
the fishery.

>>When you've got a species
that's critically endangered

throughout its range,
and you have one area

where it's recovering,

that being the southeastern
United States,

it doesn't make sense to open
a fishery again,

even at reduced levels,
when we really don't understand

what the population's doing yet.

>>I think that until
the entire population

has recovered throughout
its former range,

there should be no harvest
of goliath grouper.

>>NARRATOR:
Below the water's surface,

the goliath grouper is oblivious
to the controvers

it has stirred up on land.

It goes about its business
like its ancestors

have done for ages.

Most people, who have had
the privilege of seeing

these fish up close,
especially in large numbers,

agree that they are an awesome
sight to behold.

One that will hopefully
be around

for many future generations
to enjoy.

>>It's hard to think of anybod

who couldn't be fascinated
by them.

They're fabulous fish
and they're a key feature

of the ecology of this part
of the world.

>>I think it's one of those
animals that's worth a lot more

alive than dead.

People can go out to the reef
and these wrecks and see

these fish over and over again,
take pictures of it.

It's just you kill it one time
and it's over with, that's it,

a fish that took 30 or 50 years
to get to that size.

I just think it's something
that is unique to south Florida,

there's nowhere else
in the world where you can go

where it is documented to see
these large aggregations

of big groupers like this.

>>Major funding
for this program

was provided by the
Batchelor Foundation,

Encouraging people
to preserve and protect

America's underwater resources.