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What Eats a Big Fish?

In the food chain, humans sit at the top as one of the biggest predators of all creatures, even the largest of fishes. Fish are often cannibalistic in nature, eating one of its own kind when necessary, but many natural predators also exist for big fish outside of its species. Bigger fish spawn multiple times and live for many years, allowing its size to increase throughout its lifespan. Only larger, more aggressive predators are able to feed on a fish of such mighty length and weight.

Black Grouper
- The black grouper is a large game fish that grows up to 52 inches in length and weighs up to 180 lb. Grouper have a distinctive olive or gray body and rectangular or hexagonal patterns. The tips of its dorsal, anal and caudal fins are a black or blue color. Throughout the western Atlantic Ocean, fishermen hunt grouper because of its large hearty flesh. Mainly found on rocky bottoms and coral reefs, juveniles commonly live off the coast of Florida. Common predators of the grouper in addition to humans include sandbar sharks, hammerhead sharks, barracudas and moray eels.
Blue Marlin
- The fabled beast of Hemingway's "Old Man and the Sea," the marlin is a rather big fish. The Atlantic blue marlin weighs up to 1 ton and reaches 14 feet in length. The body of the Atlantic marlin is blue with a white shade to the body that is silvery. Female marlins are commonly much larger than males. People commonly hunt marlin for sport and trophy. Marlin is also a popular sushi fish in Japan or a dinner item in Pacific islands such as Hawaii. Other natural predators include the great white shark and shortfin mako.
Black Sea Bass
- The large sea bass is black, though smaller varieties have a dark brown coloring. From Cape Cod to Cape Canaveral, sea bass inhabit rocky bottom areas. The giant sea bass also inhabits the north Pacific Ocean. The giant sea bass weighs up to 562 lb. and grows to a length of 8 feet. Only people and large sharks prey on the larger sea bass. At one point, sea bass faced extinction off the coast of California as commercial and sport fishing exploited the shallow areas where the fish liked to spawn.
Atlantic Salmon
- Atlantic salmon spawn multiple times, grow up to 30 lb. and reach 30 inches in length. Atlantic salmon spend most of their lives on the surface of the ocean, migrating along the coasts of North America and Greenland. Commercial fishermen hunted salmon almost to the point of overfishing, and as a result, populations of salmon declined sharply in the last part of the 20th century, to the point where the Gulf of Maine population was added to the endangered species list in 2000. Natural predators of salmon include killer whales, ospreys, sharks and other marine mammals.

Animals & Science