The native species of Penghu grouper is the Malabar grouper, commonly known as Neima or Black and White Spot.

(Provided by Penghu Marine Biological Research Center)

[Reporter Liu Yuqing/Penghu Report] Grouper is an economical fish species that Chinese people often eat. In the past, Malabar grouper, which was common in Penghu, has been overfished and its population has dropped sharply.

Now Penghu box cage culture mainly focuses on grouper, mostly imported from the Philippines and Indonesia. The Penghu Marine Biological Center has started to preserve the species, hoping to preserve the purity of the species.

Chen Yijia, who was the first to engage in farming in Penghu, said that in 1979 in the intertidal bays of Penghu, Malabar grouper fry, commonly known as neima and black and white spots, could be seen everywhere. They were purchased at a price of one yuan per fish. Because of sufficient supply, they were put into grouper farming. Unexpectedly, in the future However, unscrupulous businessmen poisoned fish with white letter (sodium cyanide), and overfished large species of fish, resulting in a sharp decline in the number.

Now only the spotted grouper (red dot) imported from the Philippines and Indonesia can be introduced, which is the main force of Penghu box cage culture.

Spotted grouper and Malabar grouper, except for the different color of the spots on the body surface, the maximum body length of the spotted grouper can reach 120 cm, the weight is 15 kg, and the life span can reach 22 years.

Malabar grouper can reach a maximum length of 234 cm and a weight of 150 kg. At the same time, Malabar grouper is more resistant to viruses, so it is easier to breed in its hometown of Penghu.

But because of the frequent hybridization between the two, the fish fry industry is commonly called cabbage grouper, and most of the Penghu released grouper fry are also hybrids.

Penghu Marine Biology Research Center has long been aware of the fact that the native species of grouper in Penghu is almost extinct. However, due to the purchase of grouper fry, most of the fry delivered by the industry are hybrids, and the wild Malabar grouper has been overfished due to breeding fish. Most of the existing fish are males, and many groupers were caught before they grew up to be hermaphrodites, so the number has dropped sharply. Now they will actively search for wild species of fish, cultivate them directly on the farm and provide them to cage farmers to raise them, so as to quickly restore Penghu Native grouper.

Dotted grouper, commonly known as red dot, is imported from the Philippines and Indonesia.

(Provided by Penghu Marine Biological Research Center)