Calico grouper

Taxobox
name = Calico grouper


status = CR | status_system = IUCN3.1
regnum = Animalia
phylum = Chordata
classis = Actinopterygii
ordo = Perciformes
familia = Serranidae
genus = "Epinephelus"
species = "E. drummondhayi"
binomial = "Epinephelus drummondhayi"
binomial_authority = Goode & Bean, 1878
synonyms = The calico grouper, kitty mitchell, speckled hind, or strawberry grouper ("Epinephelus drummondhayi") is a species of fish in the Serranidae family. It is found in Bermuda and the United States. Its natural habitats are open seas, shallow seas, subtidal aquatic beds, and coral reefs. It is threatened by habitat loss.

The speckeld hind is a U.S. National Marine Fisheries Service [http://www.nmfs.noaa.gov/pr/species/concern/ 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. [http://www.nmfs.noaa.gov/pr/laws/esa/ Endangered Species Act] (ESA).

pecies Description

Speckled hind derive their name from the multitude of tiny white spots that cover their reddish-brown head, body and fins. Juvenile specimens tend to have yellow body color with white spots (Ross 1988). Speckled hinds are deep-water groupers: adults inhabit offshore rocky bottoms in depths of 80 to 1300 feet (25 to 400 m) but are most common between 200 and 400 feet (60 and 120 m) in many areas of the Western Atlantic.

Ecology

There is a paucity of data for this species: the stock structure is not characterized, population size is unknown and much of their life history has not been thoroughly investigated.

Conservation

Speckled hind are caught as bycatch from the deepwater snapper/grouper fisheries off the coast of North Carolina through Texas and directly in recreational fisheries by hook and line mostly (SAFMC 2005).

Conservation Designations

IUCN [http://www.iucnredlist.org/] : Critically Endangered

American Fisheries Society: Endangered

tatus Reviews

None

References

NMFS. Species of Concern Fact Sheet [http://www.nmfs.noaa.gov/pr/species/concern/] . 2008

ource

* Ng Wai Chuen & Huntsman, G. 2005. [http://www.iucnredlist.org/search/details.php/7854/all Epinephelus drummondhayi] . [http://www.iucnredlist.org 2006 IUCN Red List of Threatened Species. ] Downloaded on 04 August 2007.

*U.S. National Marine Fisheries Service Species of Concern program [http://www.nmfs.noaa.gov/pr/species/concern]