January 14, 2010
Contact: Lee Schlesinger, 850-487-0554

The recreational and commercial harvest of shallow-water groupers (including gag, black grouper, red grouper, scamp, red hind, rock hind, coney, graysby, yellowfin grouper, yellowmouth grouper, and tiger grouper) will close from Jan. 19 through April 30 in all Atlantic Ocean and Monroe County state waters (inside 3 nautical miles from shore).

This closure coincides with a shallow-water grouper closure in effect in Atlantic federal waters adjacent to Florida waters (beyond 3 nautical miles from shore).  These closures have been implemented to address overfishing of grouper in the Atlantic.

For more information, including regulations for grouper that apply in Gulf of Mexico waters, go to MyFWC.com/Rules and click on "Fishing - Saltwater."

source: http://www.myfwc.com/NEWSROOM/10/statewide/News_10_X_GrouperAtlClose.htm