Black Grouper in Cozumel

A large, dark, powerfully built grouper marked with rectangular chain-link blotches over a brassy-grey body, and a squared-off tail with a thin pale edge.

Quick ID

Where You Will See It In Cozumel

Black Grouper is tagged on reef profiles right along the west coast, across a depth band of roughly 32 to 131 feet.

Without a boat. It turns up at Playa Corona and Chankanaab Shallow — all shore entries, so you dive them on your own schedule.

On an ordinary beginner boat dive. It is recorded at Punta Dalila, Yellow House, Columbia Shallows, La Francesa and Las Palmas. No advanced certification needed.

Deeper, and on the walls. It also shows up on Cantarel (Eagle Ray Wall), Chun-Chacaab, Colombia Deep and Maracaibo.

Conditions change the odds more than the site does — the current, the time of day and how much the group has already stirred up the sand. Ask your guide what they have been seeing that week.

Behaviour

More mobile and more wary than the Nassau grouper. Frequently seen being cleaned at cleaning stations, mouth and gills held open while gobies and shrimp work.

Commonly Confused With

• Nassau grouper — Nassau has clean vertical bars and a black saddle on the tail base.
• Yellowfin grouper — Yellowfin shows yellow along the outer edge of the pectoral fins.

Diving Etiquette And Safety

Give cleaning stations space. A grouper holding its mouth open is mid-service, and swimming in ends the interaction for every fish there.

Part of the Cozumel marine life guide · see Cozumel dive sites · plan your Cozumel dive trip

Photo: Bernard DUPONT, CC BY-SA 2.0, via Wikimedia Commons.