Environmental group wants grouper listed as endangered

[jackdaniels]

The Warsaw grouper is a big daddy of the deep sea, sometimes 6 feet long and 300 pounds.

But they are few in number.

WildEarth Guardians, a New Mexico-based environmental advocacy group, has petitioned to declare the grouper an endangered species. The designation would establish "critical habitats" in its range, areas where activities such as fishing could face tougher restrictions. The range of the fish is the entire East Coast and Gulf of Mexico, along deep-water ledges among other catches.

The designation would be one more knot in a tightening noose of catch restrictions and bottom fishing closures that Lowcountry anglers say is killing the commercial business and strangling recreational fishing in the Southeast.

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