Status Report on Nassau Grouper (Epinephelus striatus) Aggregations in Belize, Central America

The Serranidae are a circum-global family of apex predators, which in the greater Caribbean include Sea Bass, Basslets,Hamlets and Groupers (see Table 1). The smaller members of this family are often sought by collectors for the aquarium industry, and the larger members are highly prized as food fish throughout the world. The Nassau Grouper (Epinephelus striatus) is a commercially important member of this group of fishes that has been declining throughout its range for at least the past decade (Auil- Marshalleck, 1993,Sadovy, 1993), which in turn has led to IUCN red-listing the species as endangered. The primary reason for the Nassau Grouper's decline has been attributed to selective over-fishing of its highly synchronized & site specific spawning aggregations, which occur during the period following the 1st full moon of either December or January each year (cf. Sadovy & Eklund, 1999). These aggregations have experienced near total collapse from over-fishing in Puerto Rico, Cayman Islands, Bermuda, US Virgin Islands, Mexico, and the Dominican Republic (Sadovy,1993). During the 1950's, annual grouper catches in Belize were high as 100,000 lbs(McField et al, 1996), and during the 1960's Nassau Groupers were fished a rate of about 2 tons per day from a single aggregation site on Belize's barrier reef (Craig, 1969). As late as 1994, groupers comprised more than 30% (38,383 Lbs) of the total finfish exported from Belize, of which 64% (24,764 Lbs)consisted of Nassau Grouper. More recently in 1999 & 2000, a long known aggregation site located at Glovers Reef was surveyed by the wildlife Conservation Society and found to be comprised of just 3,100 adults, from which fishermen removed 219 individuals during the same season (Salas & Ballesteros, 2001). The declining catch of Nassau Grouper has led to the common belief that this Serranid no longer aggregates at most of the localities from which it was formerly known in Belize. However attempts to close the fishery have failed because the few fishermen who continue to fish Nassau Grouper from aggregation sites argue that this species i snot declining, but capricious in its movements, and simply relocates its aggregation site from year to year. These circumstances clearly identified the need for a national survey of Nassau Grouper aggregation sites, and so funding was sourced from UNDP/GEF & the Oak Foundation to develop a Research & Advocacy Plan for the species. One component of this initiative called for a national survey of locally known aggregation sites, and the findings of the first phase of this initiative are reported here.