Grey Snapper

• It gathers to spawn at particular points on the reef following the lunar cycle, which makes those aggregations easy to find and highly vulnerable to overfishing.
• It is one of the fish that best demonstrates the value of mangroves: reefs with mangrove nearby hold far larger snapper populations.
• It tolerates fresh water and can move tens of kilometres up rivers.
• Its life cycle depends on the mangrove. The juveniles grow up among the submerged roots, and isotope studies have shown that reefs neighbouring well-preserved mangroves hold much larger snapper populations.
• It is cautious and distrustful, which has given it a reputation among anglers for being hard to fool: it refuses baits and rigs that other snappers accept.
• It forms spawning aggregations at specific points in the lunar cycle, a behaviour that makes it very vulnerable if those aggregations are fished.
• It can live close to thirty years, a long time for a medium-sized snapper.
• Its colour varies from grey to reddish brown depending on the bottom and the state of the animal, and juveniles bear a dark band crossing the eye.

Skeleton type

Vertebrate - internal bony skeleton (fish)

Habitat & environment

Mangroves, seagrass beds and reefs of the western Atlantic; juveniles in estuaries

Sources consulted: https://es.wikipedia.org/wiki/Lutjanus_griseus