to 11 years old and at a total length between . In the Atlantic coastal waters between North Carolina and Florida there are annual migrations in late winter, these migrations involve sexually mature fishes moving to offshore spawning grounds where at depths of . The spawning season in this region runs from December through May, peaking in late March and early April. In the eastern Gulf of Mexico, the spawning season runs from late December through to April, here it peaks in February and April. After spawning the females move towards shallower waters, with depths less than while the males prefer waters of They maximum recorded age is 31 years. Taxonomy Mycteroperca microlepis was first formally described as Trisotropis microlepis in 1879 by the American ichthyologists George Brown Goode (1851-1896) and Tarleton Hoffman Bean (1846-1916) with the type locality given as Florida. Utilisation and threats Mycteroperca microlepis is targeted by commercial and recreational fisheries using handline, bottom longline and speargun. Fishermen target the spawning aggregation while the juveniles are frequently caught as bycatch in the bait-shrimp fishery that fishes over sea grass beds. There have been reports of ciguatera poisoning among humans following the consumption of flesh from M. microlepis. This species is threatened by and is vulnerable to overfishing and both Mexico and the United States have introduced conservation measures. References External links microlepis Taxa named by George Brown Goode Taxa named by Tarleton Hoffman Bean Fish described in 1879 Fish of the Atlantic Ocean Sport fish