Gulf of Mexico

Gag Grouper: The truth behind your fish sandwich

If you think of a delicious, mouth-watering fish sandwich, it may be the popular gag grouper. But since the early 2000s, gag populations have been sliced nearly in half.

One reason is gag grouper are an easy target for fishermen. Some smaller fish remain closer to shore and hang around hard structures, such as artificial reefs. And males tend to congregate in known locations along the shelf-edge where limerock outcroppings emerge from the seafloor at depths of around 300 feet. The percentage of male gags has dropped from about 20 to 25 percent in the 1970s to 3 to 5 percent in the 1990s through today. That leaves fewer breeders to help replenish the population. Fishery managers enacted fishing limits and set up several marine reserves specifically to protect gag hotspots, but the species is still declining and needs additional protections.