Posted on 01/13/2020 8:15:58 AM PST by BenLurkin
The enormous fish, identified as a Warsaw grouper, was caught using a hook and line December 29 in about 600 feet of water, according to the FWC’s Fish and Wildlife Research Institute.
Otoliths are the hard structures located behind the brain of bony fishes, according to the FWC. They help fish hear, maintain balance and orient themselves. Scientists use the growth structure of otoliths to estimate a fish’s age.
Warsaw groupers can grow to a length of 7.5 feet and weight of 580 pounds. The record for the largest one caught in Florida is nearly 440 pounds.
(Excerpt) Read more at ktla.com ...
Got my NASDS card in 1971 in Hollywood Florida. My instructor was a HPD diver. He was an extra on some of the Thunderball scenes, next to the guy that gets shot in the face with a speargun during the big battle shots. Remember finding myself in a huge school of Barracuda when I was diving the third reef off of Port Everglades, high pucker factor.
RE Roy Schieder:
Probably the single best expression in movie history... that look on his face when he saw the shark for the first time was absolutely classic.
He was a great actor. The pairing of Schieder, Robert Shaw (another great) and Rich Dreyfuss in “Jaws”, was perfect.
A lot of times these huge grouper take up residence in a wreck and they so severely dominate it to the detriment of the younger grouper so culling these giants now and then isn’t a bad thing.
I think I was in the cave in the Bahamas where some of that was filmed.
That’s a man swallower. Groupers are dangerous when the reach that size.
I caught a blue gill once that identified as a 600 lb grouper.
Web results
Thunderball Grotto - Bahamas
https://www.bahamas.com › vendor › thunderball-grotto
Located just west of Staniel Cay, this fantastic underwater cave system is great
for snorkeling, diving, and wading. It is teeming with exotic marine life and a ...
I want to ice fish like Matthew McConaughey in that commercial.
It would have been more realistic if he drove his Lincoln out on the ice then after setting up is tip-up sat in the car with the heater on listening to Hockey and drinking a 6 pack of Old Milwaukee.
“Wow, estimated to be 50 years old. Alive during the Nixon years. Wonder how he felt about the current impeachment.”
Ask him! Maybe he’s a Republican! — Don Rickles OFF
None of the bluegills I caught as a kid were that big.
**Larger grouper are usually full of worms.**
EEEUUUUUUUUUUUUUUUUU!
Just don’t eat it raw, is my advice.
A Warsaw grouper? It swam all the way from Poland?
125 lb Alaska halibut was my biggest.
Took 50 years.
I saw that ad a couple of times, and he’s not going to get a grouper up thru that narrow hole he drilled. LOL.
Great one
Quick thinking!! Hilarious!
A 5-foot barracuda was my introduction to diving. After 8 weeks of classes in a pool, the checkout dive was on a wreck off Beaufort/Atlantic Beach, NC. We were warned that there were some spear fisherman on the wreck the day before so we might possibly see some sharks or barracudas (so cover up all shiney objects, etc...)
Over the side I went. I cleared my mask and opened my eyes to reorient myself and... right, smack next to me. I could reach over and touch him. About 5 feet long with the gnarliest teeth and this big ol’ eye checking me over. Haha, almost had to climb back in the boat and change my shorts.
Wow. A fish almost as big as Michael Moore
I have been in those! Used to take Chalk’s Flying Service, seaplane outfit, out of Miami to Paradise Island about six times a year. Usually stayed at the Britannia Beach Hotel. There is a scene in Thunderball where they are moving the bombs through a canal. It was part of the property of the hotel. Like Chalk’s it is long gone now, built over by the Atlantis complex. Have not been back to the islands since the 80’s.
Me either, spent two summers there sailing on a relatives boat. I need to go back sometime, maybe golf at Norman's course in Great Exuma.
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