[fred]

From Science Daily

http://www.sciencedaily.com/releases/2010/01/100119172843.htm

Most abundant along Florida's west coast but also found on watery ledges and in crevices and caverns from North Carolina to Brazil, the red grouper excavates and maintains complex, three-dimensional structures that provide critical habitats for the spiny lobster and many other commercially important species in the Gulf of Mexico. The researchers watched it work hard to remove sand from the sea floor, exposing hard rocks crucial to corals and sponges and the animals they shelter.

..."Red grouper are the 'Frank Lloyd Wrights' of the sea floor," said University of California-Davis Professor Susan Williams, who collaborated with Coleman on an earlier, related study. "Its sea-floor associates include commercially valuable species such as vermilion snapper, black grouper and spiny lobsters. If the groupers are overfished, the suite of species that depends on them is likely to suffer."

I'll admit I'm more than a little suspicious of anything that comes out of scientists these days as they are so often using science to push socio/political agendae, but this looks legit.

Quite honestly, legal or not, I'd be reluctant to take a red grouper after reading this. I'd sure want to know they were abundant in an area where they can play this role.

Worth reading for sure. Even if one just thinks it will be used for political purposes it's important to know what is out there.

Opinions appreciated.