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Show r i 1 i f rA":- ' " 1 i '' ""f- vVf 'f'W-i - ': Red Grouper 01952 National Wildlif. Federation The term Grouper covers a considerable con-siderable number of usually superior super-ior marine food fishes. The Red Grouper is not considered by some fish specialists to be a true Grouper. Group-er. Rather it is classed with the Hinds and Cabrillas. The true Groupers are wider between the eyes than the Hinds and Cabrillas and in general are smaller fishes not usually reaching above 40 pounds in weight. The Red Grouper rarely weighs as much as 40 pounds and the usual fish caught by hook and line runs around one to five pounds. The Red Grouper, like its relatives, rela-tives, has the habit of diving into obstructions when it is hooked. Frequently this results in a cut line and freedom for the fish. The Red Grouper does not occur in schools as do some of its relatives. The fish is a poor fighter and slow in its actions but the flesh is excellent ex-cellent and the animals bring a good price in commercial markets. Commercial harvesting of Red Groupers is common in the fishing banks off the west coast of Florida. Flor-ida. The method followed is using a hook and line and a piece of fish as bait. Normal diet of the Red Grouper includes molluscs, crustaceans crusta-ceans and fish. The food is taken in day or night. Red Groupers range from New England to the West Indies and are possibly most abundant in shallow shal-low waters over coral around the Florida Keys. They are well known for their ability to live some hours out of water. ; The Red Grouper grows to a length of 3 feet. It is basically brownish but often m&ttled with indistinct darker spots. There are however about the eyes definite darker spots. At the base of the tail there seems to be a series of obscure saddle-like patches. The fins including the tail are colored essentially like the remainder remain-der of the fish except that there sometimes seems to be an obscure dark band running horizontally along the back fin and there may relatively large and do not indicate any ability to swim rapidly. The end of the tail is 'straight or slightly concave in outline. E. Laurence Palmer be dark or light margins along the edges of the paired fins. The head is large and bears a correspondingly corresponding-ly large mouth.. The fins are all |