Reliable data on Atlantic Goliath Grouper abundance are prerequisite to informed management decisions, particularly as the State of Florida reopened a limited harvest on the species in 2023 after a 32-year moratorium. Limited data exist for this purpose

Atlantic Goliath Grouper, Epinephelus itajara, the largest grouper in the western North Atlantic, exhibits life history characteristics (e.g., it is slow-growing, long-lived, and late-maturing) that make it particularly susceptible to fishing pressure.

The Goliath groupers are known to produce characteristic low frequency vocalizations (“calls”) during spawning aggregations and as part of territorial behavior. Acoustic monitoring for Goliath grouper calls around Florida has historically occurred between