Star-studded Grouper
Normally 165 to 425 feet deep; the 2026 juveniles turned up at diving depth.
Sightings
2026 season, every one sourced
Southern California
- Oct 28, 2026Americas Cup Harbor, San Diego BaySource: iNaturalist 411414218
- Oct 27, 2026"The Wall," La Jolla Submarine Canyon
- Oct 25, 2026Main Wall, La Jolla Submarine Canyon, and San Diego County
- Oct 23, 2026San Diego County
- Oct 18 to 22, 2026Vallecitos Point, La Jolla, and San Diego CountyAbout 40 to 50 juveniles at Vallecitos Point
Photos
From California this season
Home Range
Where it normally lives
Southern California south to Peru.
Range source: FishBase
The species ranges from southern California to Peru. It normally lives deep, from about 165 to 425 feet, on rocky reef and soft bottom.
Identification
Young star-studded groupers are dark reddish brown and covered in white spots laid out in a neat grid of rows and columns across the body and dorsal fin. A dark saddle sits on top of the tail base, and the tail and pectoral fins are pale. Adults lose the white spots and turn plain dark brown. Some authors have mistaken it for a different grouper species.
Natural History
Star-studded groupers turn up often in shrimp trawls in the central Gulf of California, but the species is too rare to support a fishery. FishBase records little else about how it lives.
In California
Southern California is already inside this grouper's published range, so the 2026 records stand out for their numbers and their depth. On October 18, a diver reported about 40 to 50 juveniles at Vallecitos Point in La Jolla, in water far shallower than the species' usual depth. Records kept coming over the next 10 days, from the walls of the La Jolla Submarine Canyon, from elsewhere in San Diego County and from Americas Cup Harbor in San Diego Bay.
Taxonomy
Rarity
Rarity in the compendium is how often the animal has been reported on the California coast this season, not how rare it is where it normally lives. It moves as new sightings come in.