To the readers:

Last week Bill Arkilander sent me a letter asking how it could be that local restaurants offer fresh grouper when grouper season is closed. I called a local seafood dealer, asked them the same question, and printed the response. But as several astute readers have pointed out, the answer I gave had a serious factual error. The mistake is mine (that’s why I put my name at the end of each answer — to make clear who’s responsible). Although the recreation grouper season is closed, there is no such closure of the commercial grouper season. Instead, the commercial fishery is managed through an individual transferable fishing quota system. Under that system, every commercial fisherman has a defined quantity of fish he may harvest — basically, fish set aside for him to catch and sell. There are no closed seasons or bag limits. Fishermen may harvest the quantity of fish for which they have allocation any time they choose, or they may sell that right to someone else. Therefore, fresh locally caught grouper is available year-round. I regret the error.