The main influences on where they live are not known, though water clarity, habitat, and benthos (the community of organisms in the seabed) seem to be important. They shift deeper as they grow, to predominantly reef habitat (forereef and reef crest). As juveniles they are found in nearshore shallow waters in macroalgal and seagrass habitats. The Nassau grouper is considered a reef fish, but it transitions as it grows through a series of shifts in both habitat and diet. They generally live among shallow reefs, but can be found in depths to 426 feet. There has been one verified report of Nassau grouper in the Gulf of Mexico at Flower Gardens Bank. Virgin Islands, Puerto Rico, Bermuda, the Bahamas, the Greater Antilles, the Lesser Antilles, and central America. Nassau grouper are found in tropical and subtropical waters in the Caribbean and western North Atlantic, including south Florida, U.S. Our scientists use a variety of innovative techniques to study and protect this species. NOAA Fisheries is dedicated to the conservation of Nassau grouper. Nassau grouper is listed as threatened under the Endangered Species Act. Because their range exceeds national borders, the best approach to their conservation is regional closed seasons. Currently, all harvest of Nassau grouper is prohibited in the United States. In some cases, Nassau grouper is commercially extinct through much of its geographical range. It was easy for commercial and recreational fisherman to catch Nassau grouper and it soon became scarce. Nassau grouper used to be one of the most common species of grouper in the United States. They are late-maturing, long-lived, top-level predators found in tropical and subtropical waters in the Caribbean and western North Atlantic. These large fish are associated with hard structures like reefs (both natural and artificial), rocks, and ledges. It is a member of the family Serranidae, which includes groupers valued as a major fishery resource such as the gag grouper and the red grouper.
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