Cool Grouper of New Zealand


For their giant groupers alone, the Kermadec Islands are worth visiting. Some are over 50kg and 50 years old. They can grow even larger (to 2.0 metres weighing 150-180 kg!) and older. Miraculously, these impressive, intelligent and inquisitive fish have been spared their extinction, as has happened almost everywhere else in the world, and regrettably also around the main islands of New Zealand. Now they are fully protected, their human visitors behave in friendly ways, bringing a welcome change to the boredom of their fishy lives. In New Zealand known as spotted black groupers (Epinephelus daemelii) these large fish are limited to the subtropical waters of northern New Zealand, Three Kings Islands, Norfolk Island and the Kermadecs, eastern Australia, Elizabeth Reef and Middleton Reef, which amounts to a very small habitat area on the globe. This makes them rare. In Australia they are known as saddled rock cod or black rock cod, but their numbers have been greatly reduced by spearfishing and line fishing.

Born as females, the larger groupers turn into males later in life (at a length of about 1.0m), surrounding themselves with harems of half a dozen or more smaller females. Groupers are usually found where the sandy bottom meets the rocky shore, and where a cave or sheltering canyon is nearby. They seek the shelter of such places, to hang suspended in the water while watching the goings-on. Several times each day, they patrol their huge territories in search of easy prey, usually sick animals. The spotted black groper has huge jaws with sharp conical teeth, suitable for holding prey animals. It is an intelligent and inquisitive fish, perhaps capable of hunting in co-operative groups.

Like other groupers, this fish can change its colouring while you watch, from black to grey to brown to white and spotted with five clear oblique bands.
you can check out the pictures here
http://www.seafriends.org.nz/issues/...c/g2groupr.htm