Aquatic researchers are claiming that the red grouper is the equivalent of an architect with fins.
To the casual observer in the Gulf of Mexico, the seemingly sluggish red grouper is more of a couch potato than a busy beaver.
But a new study, led by researchers at The Florida State University, reveals the fish to be both architect and ecosystem engineer.
The red grouper excavates and maintains complex, three-dimensional structures that provide critical habitats for the spiny lobster and many other commercially important species in the Gulf of Mexico.
The fish not only dig holes of up to five metres across and several metres deep, but maintain them by carrying mouthfuls of sediment from the center of the pit to the periphery and expelling them through their gills and mouths.
"Red grouper are the 'Frank Lloyd Wrights' of the sea floor," said University of California-Davis Professor Susan Williams.
Felicia Coleman, director of Florida State University's Coastal and Marine Laboratory, goes one further, suggesting that the red grouper's sandy architecture is “a monument to the interconnectedness of species”.
