Grouper-Vyey

Grouper belongs to one the largest fish families and are a very common fish around the islands. They typically have a stout body and a large mouth. They are not built for long-distance, fast swimming. Their mouths and gills form a powerful sucking system that sucks their prey in from a distance. They also use their mouths to dig into sand to form their shelters under big rocks, jetting it out through their gills. Most are caught around the reefs by hook and line method.

Most groupers have very moist and firm flesh, with big flakes and high in oil and has minimal intramuscular bones. The flesh holds its moisture better than many other fish. They are overall very good eating fish although most of them are hard to scale. The scales are usually small and hard to dislodge. It takes a lot of patience.In fact the locals do not filet a grouper. It is cooked skin on, quite rightly because the skin imparts extra flavor to the fish.

Groupers, like chameleons, vary in color according to species, habitat, water depth, age, or stress. Because the different species are so similar in appearance, identification can be confusing. As with most fish, the skin pigments fade when the fish is removed from the water. Some of the grouper species that are found in Seychelles are described below, photos courtesy of Wikipedia:

 

 

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Krwasan & Gran-Ke

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These two types grouper deserve special mention because I believe they are the best eating fish that we have. The krwasan is reddish brown with bluish spots on the flanks and has a yellow-edged tail like a crescent moon. The dorsal, anal and caudal fins are also fringed with yellow. Whereas the grand-ke has a body which is brownish-orange or pale red with irregular red bands alternating with yellow lines. Sometimes, the grand-ke is often mis-identified as the krwasan. It can be readily recognised by the narrow white margin to the tail; The krwasan has a broad yellow margin to the caudal and other median fins.

Although there have been reports of ciguatera poisoning in some other islands where the groupers are eaten , we do not have this problem in the Seychelles.

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