DumpsterDiver on scuba boards found this clip showing some groupers laying in wait for a kill, then taking it. I wonder how common this sort of behavior is and in particular at more popular diving/shooting spots?
Here is another fish story, from a good while back. Most of the real colorful stories are dated. This could be due to normal distortion in the retelling over the years and/or due to the higher abundance of jewfish and large ones in particularly in those times. I came across the following story in Sarasota Herald-Tribune - Feb 19, 1961 in a general Google.com search.
It describes a group attack on a boy skin diving with his father under some phosphate docks. Well the are gregarious and can stake out a kill as shows up in DumpsterDivers clip, still a group going after something as large as teen? The boy was inhaled about halfway into a grouper at which point the father started working on extracting him which he succeeded in doing. More details appear in the news account below.
Sarasota Herald-Tribune - Google News Archive Search
The article reminisces on the old days when jewfish were really common and an "average day" for four spearfishermen was bringing in 5000 lbs.? Seems like quite a lot for an average day even when monsters were super common. That could be say 10 to 15 of them, more? What size boat would you need and just the time it would take to move them around would be considerable. So, it seems to be a high estimate. Here is a kill from the Keys, noteworthy enough to play dress-up and have a picture taken and everything.
From:
5 Goliath Grouper Myths | Grouper Luna
The article at the above link presents various arguments against reinstituting a season on goliath grouper.
What would you estimate the combined weight of these monsters to be? I would guess under 3500 pounds. If jewfish were really common in Tampa Bay and if the shooters brought some of those vintage fire extinguisher guns to take them, who knows maybe they could top 5000 pounds a day during aggregations. Now you have to bring them aboard, get them off the boat and not sink the vessel while you're at it?
I just came across this shot of Don DeMaria's haul down in the Keys. He seemed to be most active in the 1980's but started shooting off Summerland Key in the early 1970's. I don't think that is 5000 pounds of fish but with larger individuals in abundance, he might have been able to do it? You can look at his catches over the years at the following link, it is interesting to see the sizes diminish.
https://www.flickr.com/photos/keysli...th/5711534820/
He sure got a pile of sharks in 1985 in that one shot.
The FLMNH provides the following comments on hazards. Absent speared fish, I wonder just how common this stalking behavior is? Moving fast on deep breathholds I have encountered aggressive responses not that uncommonly. Still I think moving at slower speed, generating less noise and approaching more easily could well reduce this phenomena. I have become more cautious as I don't want to be detained on a breathhold dive, deep or otherwise. Scuba diving with them, jewfish usually just drift off without some dead fish in the water to gather their interest. Then there are all those old stories about people falling off docks, bridges, etc. and getting sucked in. Jewfish used to commonly inhabit such places and perhaps line fishermen conditioned them in these area to hit first and think sometime later?
"Danger to Humans
Very large goliath grouper have been observed to stalk divers and even conduct unsuccessful ambushes of the same. Large individuals of this species should be treated with caution."
"450 pound goliath grouper caught by Buddy Jenks at the Big Indian Rocks Fishing Pier, Florida (1976)
Donated by Kenneth Krysko"
http://www.flmnh.ufl.edu/natsci/icht...thGrouper.html
Looks like these two could have just wrestled to see who had the weight advantage.
Any more experiences or stories out there? Again, I have no interest or desire in seeing a season on these big boys to be reinstituted. This is as much for curiosity as anything else. In time, a whole new series of folk stories may emerge, perhaps even based on some fact. Time will tell.
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