The largest grouper in the Atlantic Ocean is so big that it can eat a four-foot-long shark in one gulp and makes noises so loud that nearby scuba divers feel an effect much like a sonic boom. These fish, named goliath groupers after the giant of Biblical legend, can reach more than eight feet long and weigh over 800 pounds. But their gargantuan size offers little protection against the proposed lifting of Florida’s fishing ban for this threatened species. 

Until 2018, goliath groupers were classified as critically endangered throughout their range, in tropical and subtropical Atlantic waters, in large part because of overfishing. In Florida, where they’re mainly concentrated on reefs around the southern coast, fishing for