I Love Grouper Fingers

I like grouper fingers! I don‘t think you understand how much I REALLY like grouper fingers. There is nothing better than sitting at a table in some remote Caribbean location with a beautiful view of the ocean and a big plate of grouper fingers and French fries. YUM!

Now I am a carnivore, after all my father was a butcher, and I love to eat meat and fish but I have come to understand that many of my eating practices are not sustainable. We are over harvesting certain species that are critical to the health of our oceans and the grouper is one of them.

When Mary and I first started diving you would see groupers on nearly every dive trip but now we may go a week at a popular dive destination and not even see one grouper. Why should we be worried? Because the absence of these large predators means that our reefs will not be healthy. Just like sharks and barracuda the grouper keeps the reef healthy by eating the less fit or less lucky fish and thereby maintaining the ecological balance of the reef.

If you have had the pleasure of diving with a grouper you may have noticed how friendly some of them are. Just like puppies they may follow you around and even come up to you to be petted. After diving with groupers I could no more eat grouper fingers than I could eat my miniature schnauzer. So I have changed my eating habits to be more considerate of what impact I may be having on the health of our oceans. And hopefully this will make some small difference.