Bass Pro Shops CEO catches Goliath groupers for aquarium | Video

BULL SHARK BARGE, STUART — Johnny Morris leaned back in the stand-up fishing harness, transferring all his might and weight into the stout rod in his hands. The big game angler, founder and chief executive officer of the Bass Pro Shops outdoor equipment and accessories mega-retailer, knew he was in a tug of war with a true giant of a fish.

On the other end of the line was a Goliath grouper that just wouldn't budge. A few minutes earlier, the grouper, half as large as a classic Volkswagen Bug, had eyed a bridled bonito dangled off a boat on the surface. The bonito looked so tasty, the grouper couldn't resist.

With a few swishes of its rounded tail fin — and for a Goliath grouper of this size, that's about as big as a manatee's — it quickly covered the 40 feet from the ocean floor to its lunch. But after it gulped in the whole bonito, the grouper chose to digest it back on the upside-down steel barge, regardless of what Morris and his friends had planned.

This wasn't going to be easy.

Grouper gathering

The entire bout was taking place at a well-known fishing spot about 2 miles south-southeast of St. Lucie Inlet called Bull Shark Barge. The 196-foot-long barge sank in 45 feet of water because of a tug boat captain's error in December 1986. Since then, it has become habitat for a number of popular game and reef fishes including cobia, African pompano and kingfish.

Since it offers about 9 feet of structure above the sandy sea floor, it often recruits schools of bait fish. For some reason, it also is a popular stopover for swarms of bull sharks in the summer months. It's why the spot formerly known by local anglers as The Upside Down Barge was later re-named Bull Shark Barge by late diver Kerry Dillon.

But the sharks aren't even the largest creatures temporarily living there. A few Goliath grouper, some estimated to weigh upwards of 400 pounds, also call this shallow, sunny spot home. In the summer and early fall, the grouper numbers swell. But researchers believe the gentle giants don't get together in spawning groups until the full moons in August and September. This month, there could be more than three or four dozen grouper larger than 150 pounds hanging around this one reef. 

Capt. Mike Murray, of Mattanza charters out of Pirates Cove Resort and Marina in Port Salerno, knows this. Last week, longtime friend and professional captain Terry Robinson called Murray to ask him if he was confident he could catch a few Goliath grouper. Murray laughed.

"How many do you want to catch?" Murray said. Robinson told him four, but there was more to this excursion than just the typical catch and release fishing trip. These Goliath groupers had a rare ticket out of town.

Save Goliath

Since 1990, harvest of Goliath groupers has been prohibited in Florida and U.S. federal waters. Prior to that, the large fish was susceptible to overfishing by spearfishing divers who sold their catch. The population numbers of large Goliath grouper observed in areas frequented by hook-and-line fishermen has generated a call to state officials to consider opening the Goliath grouper fishery to some form of limited sustainable harvest.

Anglers who fish for snook and snapper at nearshore reef sites throughout South Florida, including jetties such as Sebastian Inlet and Fort Pierce Inlet, have complained that the oversized opportunistic apex predator is taking too many of their catches off their fishing lines.

"We've had it happen where customers reeling in cobia, kingfish or mutton snapper — boy, do they love mutton snapper — will lose a fish to a Goliath grouper," Murray said. "I'd be in favor of some sort of system where maybe we could purchase tags to harvest them. I would buy several each year up to $100 each and keep them on board in case I had a charter who wanted to take one home."

Murray believes the state and federal protections offered the Goliath grouper were not only necessary in 1990, but also have enabled a strong recovery for the species.

"I think it's truly a success story how these fish have come back since then," Murray said. "When I moved down here in the early 1990s, we didn't see any of these big Goliaths. Now, they're everywhere. I've found them 12 inches long in my crab trap behind my house, 10-pounders on the flats of the Indian River Lagoon, 40- to 50-pounders around the bridges in this area, and these behemoths out on just about every reef I know of off St. Lucie, Martin and Palm Beach counties."

In the coming months, the state will have workshops about Goliath grouper stocks to determine if there is justification to open a limited harvest.

Wonders of Wildlife

Morris finally felt a bump. His grappling Goliath grouper started to give in.

Robinson eased the throttle of the 41-foot Offshore Angler Mako while Morris held tight. They used the boat to "pull" the grouper away from the barge below, and into open water where the men had better control. Murray, aboard his boat Mattanza, awaited the signal before approaching too closely. Robinson told him the fish was now at the surface. Time to get to work.

On the wide deck of Mattanza's cockpit was a large blue poly pool about 8 feet in diameter. It was filled with saltwater, and standing alongside it were members of Morris' fish-collection team.

As the Goliath grouper on the end of Morris' line rolled on its side exhausted and with gases built up in its swim bladder, the men swung into action. They lifted a sling into the water by hand and encircled the girth of the rotund bottom-dweller. Working in careful unison, they lifted the fish (which weighed more than any of the men involved) over the railing of the Mattanza and eased it down into the pool.

Immediately, biologists and aquarists began working to cautiously allow the gases to escape without injuring the fish. Murray pointed the bow toward the inlet and slowly motored back into the Manatee Pocket to deliver the precious cargo.

"Once we got back to the dock, all of us, including other captains around Pirates Cove, staff and whoever else was hanging around, all pitched in to help us lift the grouper into the back of the collection truck," he said. 

The grouper, as well as others caught during the two-day collection trip July 3 and 4, will soon be headed by truck to a huge aquarium 1,200 miles away in Springfield, Missouri. They, and scores of other fish collected from Florida waters in the coming weeks, will become part of Wonders of Wildlife National Museum and Aquarium, a new attraction expected to open in September next door to the headquarters for Bass Pro Shops Outdoor World. It will also be the new home of the International Game Fish Association's Game Fish Museum, which is relocating from Dania Beach, where it has been for the past 15 years.

Murray said the group caught all four Goliath grouper allowed by a Special Activity License permit for prohibited species collection issued in 2016 by the Florida Fish and Wildlife Conservation Commission. The Special Activity License permit cost is $25.

According to an email from FWC public information specialist Amanda Nalley, Special Activity Licenses are issued for activities that require an exception to established marine fisheries regulations for purposes of scientific research, restoration/stock enhancement, education, exhibition, aquaculture broodstock collection, gear innovation and a few other activities. Wonders of Wildlife qualifies under the description for exhibition.

Joining Morris during this collection trip was none other than fishing television personality Bill Dance. Murray said it was fantastic to work alongside fishing legends like Morris and Dance.

"It was so cool to see how much both of those guys were excited and how they truly love these fish and fishing," Murray said. "They let my son, Brant, and first mate Alex Yates help out, which was so cool."    

Morris, Robinson and the collection team departed Stuart on Wednesday. Next stop was the Florida Keys, where the groupers will live in a quarantine for about a month before heading to Missouri. Murray said the team was on the water Thursday in the Keys working to collect more fish for the Wonders of Wildlife aquarium, such as tarpon, permit, bonefish, snook and a variety of snapper, grouper and much more.