Yellowedge Grouper, Hyporthodus flavolimbatus
Yellowedge Grouper, Hyporthodus flavolimbatus. Fish caught from waters off Pulley Ridge, 100 miles west of the Tortugas Ecological Reserve, Florida Keys, August 2014. Length: 66 cm (2 feet 2 inches). Weight: 3.6 kg (8.0 lbs). Catch, photograph and identification courtesy of George Brinkman, Guelph, Ontario, Canada.
The Yellowedge Grouper, Hyporthodus flavolimbatus, is a member of the Grouper or Ephinephelidae Family, that is also known as the Yellowfinned Grouper and in Mexico as mero extraviado. Globally, there are fourteen species in the genus Hyporthodus, of which seven are found in Mexican waters, four in the Atlantic and three in the Pacific Ocean.
The Yellowedge Grouper has a robust compressed oval body that is deepest at the origin of their dorsal fin. Their head and body are yellowish-brown to gray-brown and transition to white ventrally. Their eyes are bright yellow. The edges of their anal, caudal, dorsal, and pectoral fins have yellow tips. They have a prominent blue line that runs from their eyes to the corner of their gill covers and a grid of white spots on their sides. Juveniles are dark brown with a blue line that runs from their eyes to their gill covers, a grid of 7 columns of 4 white spots on their body, a shallow dark brown blotch on their upper caudal fin base, dark anal and pelvic fins, and yellow edges on their caudal and dorsal fins. They have a large terminal mouth equipped with depressed teeth on the sides and roof of the mouth. Their anal fin has 3 spines and 9 rays; their caudal fin is convex in juveniles and straight to concave in adults; their dorsal fin has 11 spines, with the third or the fourth being the longest, and 13 to 15 rays; and, their pectoral fins are under their pelvic fins. They have 23 to 25 gill rakers. They are covered with rough scales.
The Yellowedge Grouper is a demersal species that are found as solitary individuals at depths between 91 m (300 feet) and 343 m (1,125 feet) over soft muddy bottoms and take shelter in adjacent rocky areas and excavated burrows. Juveniles are found inshore in waters as shallow as 30 m (100 feet). They reach a maximum of 1.14 m (3 feet 9 inches) in length and 18.6 kg (41 lbs) in weight. As of January 1, 2023, the International Game Fish Association world record stood at 22.0 kg (48 lbs 8 oz) with the fish caught from coastal waters off Dauphin Island, Alabama in June 2012 noting that this weight is greater than that documented within the scientific community. They feed on a wide variety of invertebrates (including brachyuran crabs) and fish. They are an essential component of the ocean’s food chain because the excavations and burrows they create provide structure and habitat for a wide variety of marine life. They are considered top-level predators and adults are subject to limited predation. Reproduction occurs as sequential hermaphroditism with all fish born as females and changing to males around age twenty-two. Females release pelagic eggs in multiple batches and larvae are pelagic. They are long-lived and have a lifespans of up to eighty-five years. The Yellowedge Grouper is poorly studied with very limited information available about their lifestyle and behavioral patterns including specific details on age, growth, longevity, movement patterns, diet, habitat use, and reproduction.
The Yellowedge Grouper is a resident of all Mexican waters of the Atlantic Ocean including the Gulf of Mexico and the Caribbean.
The Yellowedge Grouper is an easy fish to identify due to its yellow-tipped fins and the grid of white spots on its sides and cannot be confused with any other species.
From a conservation perspective the Yellowedge Grouper is currently considered to by Vulnerable, with significant declines in their population throughout their range. They are a major focus species, being considered to be one of the more important species of grouper in the deep coastal waters of Mexico, by both recreational and commercial fishermen and caught by handline, longline (up to 1,200 hooks per set), and gill nets. They are considered a quality food fish and sold fresh commercially. They are caught at levels of up to 3.5 metric tons (8,000 lbs) annually in the Gulf of Mexico with the majority of the catch being older and larger males. The size and age of the landed fish have diminished significantly over the past decade. Intensified fishing pressure occurs during aggregation and spawning windows with larger males primarily removed from residual populations. They are a long-lived and non-migratory hermaphroditic species that is very slow to mature. Efforts to regulate the fishery in the United States are in place and include inshore water closures, bans on fishing with bottom gear, establishment of no fishing marine reserves, seasonal closures, and bag limits, however, such controls are absent from other parts of their known range. They are also prone to habitat destruction caused by trawls targeting more abundant species found at similar depths including various Groupers and Tilefish. At present this species is extinct in some parts of its historical range and scientific monitoring of its status throughout most of its current range is inadequate.