NASSAU GROUPER
Epinephelus striatus
English: Nassau grouper, day grouper, grouper, hamlet, rockfish, sweet lip, and white grouper, red grouper
Spanish: cherna, cherna criolla, mero, mero gallina
The Nassau Grouper is buff-coloured, with five dark brown vertical bars and a large black saddle blotch on top of the caudal peduncle, and a row of black dots below and behind the eye. It has a distinctive dark tuning-fork mark beginning at the front of the upper jaw, extending dorsally along the interobital and bifurcating on top of the head behind the eyes. It has another dark band from the tip of the snout through the eye and then curves upward to meet its fellow just before the dorsal-fin origin. Some fish have irregular pale spots and blotches all over the head and body. The colour pattern can change in a few minutes from almost white to uniformly dark brown depending on the ‘mood' of the fish.
Growing to a maximum of 4 feet ( 1.2 m) and weighing over 50 pounds ( 22.7 kg), this grouper is one of the largest fish on the reef. More commonly, this grouper reaches a length of 1-2 feet (0.3 -0.6 m) and weighs 10-20 pounds (4.5 -9 kg).