By Ron Matus
Special to the Florida State Times

Mmmm-mmmm Enjoy that stuffed grouper while you can. If two FSU researchers are right, black grouper - a Big Bend seafood staple - won't be on restaurant menus much longer.

"We're predicting a collapse," said FSU adjunct Professor Chris Koenig. He and Felicia Coleman, an assistant biology professor, have studied the population of gag grouper (better known in restaurants, for obvious reasons, as "black" grouper) for seven years.

Their research brings bad news to fish lovers, fishermen and the coastal towns whose economies depend on them. Overfishing and the reluctance of state and federal authorities to manage groupers will bring a fisheries "crash," the researchers said.

From FSU's Marine Lab south of Tallahassee, Koenig and Coleman have counted gag grouper from Sanibel to Panama City.

Fishermen have noted dwindling numbers for years. But more alarming, the two warn, is how overfishing has altered the male-to-female ratio. Fishermen are more likely to catch males because they hang out above the reefs, pursue bait more aggressively and - because they're bigger - tend to be "keepers."

As a result, Koenig and Coleman estimate, there are 99 females for each male. Not good.

"They don't have an infinite capacity to fertilize eggs," Coleman said."There isn't enough to go around."

The two say they've warned authorities about the grouper's plight, but to no avail. For one thing, they say, most population projections are based on current yields and don't consider male-female ratios. So they're not showing a problem.

Koenig and Coleman said fisheries and habitat management are needed - now. Seagrass beds in shallow coastal areas, where juvenile groupers occur, need protection from pollution and development.

It's even more important, they said, to limit the catch around the reefs 50-70 miles offshore where groupers spawn.

"You don't sustain anything by allowing the intensity of fishing we have," Coleman said. "Go up to New England and look around. The cod fisheries have collapsed. It's all short-term gain."