Nassau Grouper (Proposed)

This sections provides the Simplified Geographic Description for each of the Proposed Units.

The 19 Proposed Critical Habitat Units for Nassau Grouper include:

Navassa Island Unit. Waters surrounding Navassa Island. Area = 2.468 sq. km.

Puerto Rico Unit 1 - Mona Island. Waters off the west and south coast of Mona Island. Area = 18.344 sq. km.

Puerto Rico Unit 2 - Desecheo Island. Waters off the southwest coast of the island. Area = 0.468 sq. km.

Puerto Rico Unit 3 - Southwest. Waters off the southwest coast of the Puerto Rico main island. Area = 112.393 sq. km.

Puerto Rico Unit 4 - Northeast. Waters off the northeast coast of the Puerto Rico main island. Area = 48.754 sq. km.

Puerto Rico Unit 5 - Vieques Island. Waters off the west and northeast, east, and southeast coasts of the island. Area = 9.488 sq. km.

Puerto Rico Unit 6 - Culebra/Culebrita Islands. The Culebra area consists of waters off the southeastern Culebra coastline. The Culebrita area consists of waters off the western and southern coasts of the island. Area = 4.149 sq. km.

United States Virgin Island Unit 1- St Thomas. Waters off the east coast of St. Thomas Island and waters off the southwest, south, and southeast coast of the Water Island. Area = 9.183 sq. km.

United States Virgin Island Unit 2- St. John. Waters off the east coast of the island. Area = 6.552 sq. km.

United States Virgin Island Unit 3- St. Croix. Waters off the east end of St. Croix Island and waters off the north coast of Buck Island. Area = 50.35 sq. km.

Florida Unit 1 – Biscayne Bay/Key Largo. Waters south of Rickenbacker Causeway, including portions of waters from the coastline into Biscayne Bay, and waters off the eastern coastline to 80°29'21" W, 25° 01' 59" N. Area = 1279.696.

Florida Unit 2 - Marathon. Waters off the southern shoreline approximately between Knights Key to 80°55'51"W, 24° 46' 26" N. Area = 172.379.

Florida Unit 3 - Big Pine Key to Geiger Key. Waters off the south side of coastline and US 1 from approximately Geiger Key to Big Pine Key. Area = 372.369 sq. km.

Florida Unit 4 - Key West. Shoal waters south of Woman Key. Area = 127.078 sq. km.

Florida Unit 5 - New Ground Shoal. New Ground Shoal waters. Area = 31.042 sq. km.

Florida Unit 6 - Halfmoon Shoal. Halfmoon Shoal waters. Area = 33.615 sq. km.

Florida Unit 7 - Dry Tortugas. Waters encompassing Loggerhead Key and waters surrounding Garden Key and Bush Key. Area = 4.437 sq. km.

Spawning Site Unit 1 - Bajo de Sico. All waters encompassed by 100m isobath bounded in the Bajo de Sico spawning area bound within the following coordinates: A) 67°26’13”W, 18°15’23”N, B) 67°23’ 08”W, 18°15’26”N, C) 67°26’ 06”W, 18°12’55”N, and D) 67°26’ 13”W, 18°12’56”N. Area = 10.738 sq. km.

Spawning Site Unit 2 - Grammanik Bank/Hind Bank. All waters which make up the Hind Bank and the Grammanik Bank, interconnecting waters between these banks, and waters extending out to the 200 fathom line directly south from Grammanik Bank. Area = 59.6907 sq. km.

Source of Base Data Creating these Units:

The shoreline was created using Acropora critical habitat data (from NOAA NCCOS Benthic Habitat Mapping 2000-2002 - land and mangrove attribute combined for shoreline) https://coastalscience.noaa.gov/project/benthic-habitat-mapping-puerto-rico-virgin-islands/. Contours were derived from the National Geophysical Data Center’s 2004 U.S. Coastal Relief Model https://www.ngdc.noaa.gov/mgg/coastal/crm.html. The NCCOS Benthic Habitat Mapping program provides data and maps at http://products.coastalscience.noaa.gov/collections/benthic/default.aspx, which was used to pull in substrate data. Benthic data was also used from The Nature Conservancy and can be found and downloaded here: https://sites.google.com/view/caribbean-marine-maps

Standardized metadata has been prepopulated for the Fields and Values and the standard spatial reference is the World Geodetic System 1984 geographic coordinate system (GCS_WGS_1984, EPSG well-known identifier 4326).

Attribute Values:

Shape = Feature Class, Polygon Data.

ID = Species ID

Scientific Name = Genus species

Common Name = Common Name of species

Listing Status = Federal status of a taxon under the federal Endangered Species Act.

Critical Habitat Status = Status of Critical Habitat Designation (i.e. Proposed or Designated)

Unit = Location of Identified Critical Habitat

Taxon = Taxon

Lead Office = NMFS Regional Office

Federal Register Rule = Public official notice of Rule

Publication Date = Publication Date of Federal Register Notice

Effective Date = Effective Date of Rule

Area SqKm = Area of Unit in Square Kilometers

Create Date = Last Date Polygon and Attribute Data were Modified

Notes = notes

InPort URL = MetaData URL Link (InPort)

Habitat Type = general location of critical habitats

eCFR = Link to designated critical habitat regulatory text and maps published in the eCFR.

Shape_Length = dynamic geodatabase field. Automatically calculated in the units of the output coordinate system specified by the Spatial Reference parameter by ESRI.

Shape_Area = dynamic geodatabase field. Automatically calculated in the units of the output coordinate system specified by the Spatial Reference parameter by ESRI.

This layer displays the Proposed Critical Habitat designations for Nassau grouper, Epinephelus striatus. NMFS proposes to designate critical habitat for the threatened Nassau grouper pursuant to section 4 of the Endangered Species Act (ESA). Specific occupied areas proposed for designation as critical habitat contain approximately 2,353.19 sq. kilometers (908.57 sq. miles) of aquatic habitat located in waters off the coasts of southeastern Florida, Puerto Rico, Navassa, and the United States Virgin Islands (USVI).

The Nassau grouper is a reef fish. It is a member of the family Serranidae, which includes groupers valued as a major fishery resource such as the gag grouper and the red grouper. These large fish are associated with hard structures like reefs (both natural and artificial), rocks, and ledges. They are late-maturing, long-lived, top-level predators found in tropical and subtropical waters of the western North Atlantic. This includes Bermuda, Florida, Bahamas, the Yucatan Peninsula, and throughout the Caribbean to southern Brazil.

The Nassau grouper is considered a reef fish, but undergo ontogenetic shifts in habitat utilization: larvae settle in nearshore habitats and then as juveniles move to nearshore patch reefs (Eggleston, 1995), and eventually recruit to deeper waters and reef habitats (Sadovy and Eklund, 1999). As adults, individuals are sedentary except for when they aggregate to spawn - the timing of which appears to be linked to both lunar cycles and water temperature (Kobara et al., 2013). Maximum age has been estimated as 29 years, based on an ageing study using sagittal otoliths (Bush et al., 2006). Maximum size is about 122 cm total length (TL) and maximum weight is about 25 kg (Heemstra and Randall, 1993).

Nassau grouper used to be one of the most common species of grouper in the United States. It was easy for commercial and recreational fisherman to catch Nassau grouper and it soon became scarce. The remaining stocks are overexploited. In some cases, Nassau grouper is commercially extinct through much of its geographical range.

Currently, all harvest of Nassau grouper is prohibited in the United States. Nassau grouper is listed as threatened under the Endangered Species Act. NOAA Fisheries is dedicated to the conservation of Nassau grouper.

These spatial data are not the official legal definitions of critical habitat. Proposed rules, final rules, and the Code of Federal Regulations (50 CFR 226) are the official sources of critical habitat.No Warranty. The user assumes the entire risk related to its use of these data. The NMFS is providing these data "as is," and NMFS disclaims any and all warranties, whether express or implied, including (without limitation) any implied warranties of merchantability or fitness for a particular purpose. No warranty expressed or implied is made regarding the accuracy or utility of the data on any other system or for general or scientific purposes, nor shall the act of distribution constitute any such warranty. It is strongly recommended that careful attention be paid to the contents of the metadata file associated with these data to evaluate dataset limitations, restrictions or intended use. In no event will NMFS be liable to you or to any third party for any direct, indirect, incidental, consequential, special or exemplary damages or lost profit resulting from any use or misuse of this data.

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