Epinephelus marginatus (Lowe, 1834)

– Dusky grouper

Serranus fimbriatus: Valenciennes, 1843: 8 (C).

Serranus gigas: Steindachner, 1867: 613-615 (T); Vinciguerra, 1883: 609 (T), 1893: 303-304 (T).

Gadus monopterigius cirratus: Viera y Clavijo, 1868 (1982): 282 (C).

Epinephelus gigas: Cadenat, 1935: 400 (in synonyms).

Serranus guaza: Fowler, 1936: 760-762 (C).

Epinephelus guaza: Jordan and Gunn, 1899: 341 (C); Dooley et al., 1985: 16 (C); Pizarro, 1985: 85 (F); Brito, 1991: 103, 112 (C); González-Jiménez et al., 1994: 78-79 (C).

Epinephelus marginatus: Franquet and Brito, 1995: 66 (C); Brito et al., 2002: 216, 232 (C); González et al., 2012: 144-145 (C); Báez et al., 2019: suppl. tab. (C); Freitas et al., 2019: suppl. tab. S3 (C).

An amphi-Atlantic and western Indian Ocean species with warm affinity. Western Indian Ocean: from southern Mozambique and Madagascar to South Africa, and recently recorded from Réunion Island (vagrant) (Reid et al., 2016) and Arabian Sea (Oman), but absent from surrounding areas (Béarez et al., 2020). Western Atlantic: from southern Brazil to Argentina. Eastern Atlantic: throughout the Mediterranean Sea and from the northern Bay of Biscay (Brittany) to Morocco (Collignon, 1973 – frequent) and southwards to Angola, including the Azores, Madeira, Selvagens, Canary and Cabo Verde Islands; stray specimens reported from the British Isles, and eastern English Channel (Normandy, France) (Heemstra and Anderson, 2016; Freitas et al., 2019; Froese and Pauly, 2020).

It is a common species native to the Canary Islands, living between the coastline and 200 m of depth; juveniles frequently inhabit intertidal pools (Brito, 1991; Brito et al., 2002; González et al., 2020). Reported maximum size: to 160 cm TL and 60 kg (González et al., 2012). Spanish vernacular names: mero. In the region, it is an important fishery resource exploited all year round by domestic small-scale fisheries with hook-and-line, traps, and trammel nets. Its landings seem to be stabilized around a mean of 33.3 t /y in the period of 2014-2019, with a peak of 37.3 t in 2017 (González et al., 2020). It is also subject to some recreational fishing activity (González et al., 2012).