The giant grouper of the Sea of Cortez. It can pass 90 kg and live almost 50 years, and in 1960 it made up nearly half of the Gulf’s small-boat catch. Today it is endangered, and in Los Cabos it is a rare fish.
A big, heavy-bodied grouper. Adults are plain dark brown to grey; large adults have a white edge on the pectoral fins and a narrow white edge on the other fins. Juveniles have dark blotches on the upper body, and a stressed adult can flash that blotched pattern too.
The gulf grouper lives throughout the Gulf of California and south to Mazatlán. It is naturally rare north of Bahía Magdalena and rare on the Pacific side of southern Baja. Young fish grow up in mangroves, estuaries and bays; adults move to rocky reefs, seamounts and kelp beds from about 5 to 30 m deep, going deeper in summer.
Adults eat only fish, ambushing them with a sudden suck of their big mouth, mostly at dawn and dusk. Females mature at about 6 years, and the species is likely protogynous: some fish start as females and later become males. From April to June adults gather at reefs and seamounts to spawn, and they can live up to 48 years.
In a survey of 108 Gulf of California fishers, the oldest had caught up to 25 times as many gulf grouper on their best day as young fishers had on theirs. Few young fishers believed big fish had ever been common near shore.
Source ↗Official landings suggested gulf grouper catches were rising. Historical records and fishers’ memories showed the opposite: after a heyday before the 1970s, the species fell to probably a few percent of its former numbers.
Source ↗In 1960 gulf grouper made up about 45% of the Gulf of California’s small-boat fishery. By the 1970s it was 10%; today it is less than 1%.
Source ↗Divers found a spawning site inside Cabo Pulmo National Park. Big males hold territories over sand next to the reef, females visit them in the evening, and in May 2017 the fish spawned 12 evenings in a row before sunset.
Source ↗At the Cabo Pulmo site, males made sounds while patrolling their territories, courting and spawning. Underwater recorders picked up more sounds each day from March through June.
Source ↗Large adults feed on fish, and the gulf grouper has been reported to prey on juvenile hammerhead sharks.
Source ↗Around Los Cabos the gulf grouper is an occasional catch on rocky bottom and banks, usually by anglers fishing live bait or yo-yo jigs for other reef fish. Local reports from the San José del Cabo panga fleet include a 110 lb fish in March 2012 and a 150 lb fish on a live caballito near the Iman Bank in June 2012, but most weeks there are none.
Mexican law still allows two a day, but Top Anglers encourages releasing every gulf grouper. The species is endangered, takes about six years to mature and gathers to spawn in the same places every year, which made it easy to overfish. Fish pulled from deep water can suffer barotrauma: keep it in the water if you can, keep handling under 20 seconds, and send it back down with a descending device. Sport fishing is not allowed inside Cabo Pulmo National Park.
Mexican law allows two a day, but this is an endangered fish, so we encourage releasing it.
| Daily limit (NOM-017-PESC-1994) | Up to 2 per angler per day; each counts as 5 of the 10-fish total |
|---|---|
| IUCN Red List | Endangered (assessed 2016) |
| U.S. Endangered Species Act | Endangered since 2016; importing it, or any part of it, into the U.S. is prohibited |
| NOM-059-SEMARNAT-2010 | Not on Mexico’s list of species at risk |
| IGFA all-tackle record | 130 lb 1 oz (59 kg), El Farallón de San Ignacio, Mexico, 2026 |
| Cabo Pulmo National Park | Sport fishing not allowed |
Top Anglers encourages catch-and-release for every gulf grouper.
The leopard grouper or cabrilla sardinera (Mycteroperca rosacea) and the spotted cabrilla or cabrilla pinta (Epinephelus analogus) are covered in dark spots and much smaller, about 1 m at most. The broomtail grouper (Mycteroperca xenarcha) is often grey with dark blotches and a pale, maze-like network, and has a distinct lobe at the corner of the gill cover. The Pacific goliath grouper or mero (Epinephelus quinquefasciatus) has an extremely broad head and small black spots, and grows bigger still.
How to tell Cabo’s groupers and snappers apart ›
Legally, yes: up to 2 per angler per day under NOM-017-PESC-1994. Because the species is endangered, Top Anglers encourages releasing it.
No. The gulf grouper has been listed as endangered under the U.S. Endangered Species Act since 2016, and importing it or any part of it into the U.S. is prohibited.
Up to about 198 cm and 91 kg. The IGFA all-tackle record is 130 lb 1 oz (59 kg), caught in Mexico in January 2026.
Top illustration: Top Anglers. Photos: iNaturalist contributors, credited on each photo.
Pangas and small boats that work the beaches, points and rocky reefs. From $453 with license included.
