This fish is the pride and joy of Little Cayman:  the Nassau Grouper (Epinephelus striatus).  Thanks to some aggressive action first by REEF and then by the Cayman Islands Legislative Assembly, we have what is probably the most thriving population of Nassau Groupers in the Caribbean.  These are large fish, sometimes reaching 4' in length, and they can live over 20 years.

All Nassau Grouper start off life as females, then some change into males later in life.  They are both territorial and solitary, each Nassau Grouper staking out a section of the reef that it calls its own.  Those of us who dive these waters regularly get to know them as individuals, since the same Grouper can always be found on the same patch of territory.  For instance, this big guy below, who is probably the most famous personality on Little Cayman, can always be found at Donna's Delight:

He is known as Benji to the divers from Little Cayman Beach Resort, though the staff at Southern Cross Club introduce him to their divers as Jerry.  Whatever his name is, you can see that he is a very friendly fellow.  As soon as divers appear at Donna's Delight, Benji comes scurrying over to play with the divers.  He has absolutely no fear of people, and he let me come up to within about 5" of him with my camera to get the photo at left.  He loves to be petted, and in fact reacts with exactly the same expression as a Labrador Retriever when you stroke his chin.  But what he really likes to do is go hunting for Squirrelfish with the divers.  He has us trained!  Our job is to find a Squirrelfish and point it out to Benji, then he will charge after it once you find it for him.  Every great once in a while Benji manages to catch it and enjoy a quick snack.  Most of the time, though, the Squirrelfish will dart under a coral head and hide.  Then Benji goes over and "points" at the coral head, much like a good bird dog will point a pheasant.  The diver's job is then to come flush the Squirrelfish out from under the coral head, and then Benji charges after it again. 

The interesting phenomena with Nassau Groupers is that once, and possibly twice a year, they congregate in large aggregations to spawn.  This only happens once the water temperature gets down to 79F or less, and it happens for a period of 5-6 days before, during, and after the full moon.  On Little Cayman, that has historically been the full moon in January and February.  There are distinct aggregation sites, and these fish swim for great distances to go to the aggregation sites.  This is strongly reminiscent of Ft. Lauderdale during the annual spring break, so perhaps we're not so very different from Nassau Grouper after all!  The tragedy, though, is that by the time the fish get to the aggregation sites they are so hungry they will feed on any kind of lure a fisherman throws in the water.  Throughout the Caribbean this has led to gross overfishing and nearly destroyed the Nassau Grouper population.   I believe it is now the case that the aggregation site off the western tip of Little Cayman--about a mile offshore from my house--is now the only active Nassau Grouper aggregation site left in the entire Caribbean east of Belize.  Until only a few years ago, Caymanian fishermen were pulling these things in by the boatload from the aggregation sites.  Several aggregation sites around the Cayman Islands became so depleted that the fish ceased gathering there.  Then REEF, working in conjunction with the Cayman Islands Department of the Environment, sounded the alarm.  There were public presentations, followed by petitions, and finally the Legislative Assembly passed a law mandating a moratorium for 8 years on fishing for Nassau Grouper within 1 mile of the aggregation sites.  I personally have seen a significant increase in the Nassau Grouper population around here in the years since that moratorium was enacted.