[Family Serranidae]
Groupers are a group of ocean fish of the same family as Sea Bass and with very similar in characteristics. The most famous are the Giant and Goliath Groupers which can grow to around 1000 pounds - pretty big bass. All groupers meet kosher requirements but many species are Red Listed as VU (vulnerable) or EN (Endangered).
More on Varieties of Fish
(very large page).
[Epinephelus areolatus]
This Indo West-Pacific fish is found from the west coast of Africa, in
the Red Sea, and on to Fiji in the Pacific. It is found as far north
as southern Japan down to the north coast of Australia, where it is
very common. It can grow to 18 inches and 3 pounds but the photo
specimen was 13-1/2 inches and weighed 1 pound. This fish is both caught
wild and farmed. This fish is not IUCN Red List LC (Least Concern).
Details and Cooking.
[Epinephelus heniochus]
This Indo West-Pacific fish is found from the western side of Java to
the Philippines and from southern Japan to northern Australia.
It can grow to 13-3/4 inches, but the photo specimen was 12-1/8 inches
and weighed 14-1/2 ounces. This fish is caught wild, and is ICUN
Red List LC (Least Concern).
Details and Cooking.
[Jewfish; Epinephelus itajara]
This fish which grows to 98 inches and near 1000 pounds occasionally
attempts to eat scuba divers. It is found in warmer Atlantic waters
of both North and South America and western Africa. It particularly
likes to live in caves and shipwrecks. This fish has been greatly
depleted, mainly by sport spear fishing - this fish is Red Listed
CR (Critically Endangered) - do not catch, do not spear, do not
eat (severe Federal fines for posession).
[Epinephelus lanceolatus]
This Indo-West Pacific fish grows to over 100 inches and 880 pounds
and is found from South Africa to Hawaii. It's habits and
characteristics are very similar to the
Goliath Grouper of the American
coasts. This fish has been over-fished and is Red Listed as VU
(Vulnerable). Some aquaculture has been established.
Photo by Dilff distributed under license Creative Commons
Attribution-ShareAlike v3.0 Unported.
[Brown Grouper, Deer Grouper (Bahamas), Epinephelus morio]
This West Atlantic fish is found from North Carolina to Southern Brazil
and all around the Gulf of Mexico and Caribbean. It can grow to 49 inches
and 50 pounds but the photo specimen was 16-1/2 inches and weighed
1-1/2 pound. This fish is Red Listed as NT (Near Threatened).
Details and Cooking.
[Rooster Hind (fb), Hyporthodus acanthistius]
This East Pacific fish is found from California at the Mexican border
south to Peru. It can grow to over 39 inches, but the photo specimen
was 23 inches long and weighed about 6 pounds. This fish lives in
depths between 150 and 300 feet and is subject only to minor
commercial harvest, Red Listed as LC (Least Concern).
Details and Cooking.
[Golden Hind (fb), Cephalopholis aurantia | Strawberry Hind (fb),
Strawberry Grouper, Cephalopholis spiloparaea]
Fishbase ascribes "strawberry grouper" to C. spiloparaea but
the photo specimen is a half inch longer than that fish gets. Consequently
I'm assigning "Strawberry Grouper" to both these nearly identical fish.
Both are Indo Pacific fish found from Mozambique (C.
Spiloparaea only) to French Polynesia. Both are deep water reef
fish of similar habit. C. spiloparaea can grow to nearly 12 inches
and C. aurantia to 23 inches but the photo specimen was 12-1/2
inches and weighed 1.4 pounds. Neither fish is Red Listed.
Details and Cooking.