With an ongoing theme of Grouper! this month, I spent some time — well, okay, I confess, a lot of time — surfing YouTube. I found eight videos I felt were worth sharing. Most show grouper in situ, though one shows anglers boating a fish. (Video of fishing for grouper — not known for aerial acrobatics or as sight-casting targets — is not generally terribly exciting: rod bends hard over, angler grunts and wheezes, eventually grouper is gaffed and pulled aboard.) But anyone who shares my passion for this globally ubiquitous group of fishes should enjoy these eight videos.

Big Grouper Steals Spearfisher’s Catch!

This remarkable half-minute video went viral last year and not surprisingly. Although widely labeled a goliath grouper, anyone who knows his grouper will see right off that the pattern is all wrong to be a goliath; this grouper is longer and sleeker. It’s what’s known as a potato cod or potato grouper from the Indo-Pacific, and like the goliath, one of the world’s biggest groupers. This short video really demonstrates the lightning speed of a short-range attack of which groupers are capable. Given the short but abrasive teeth that line a potato cod’s jaws, this diver is lucky to have come away without serious injuries. Once you’ve watched this, compare it with the next video.