Epinephelus marginatus is a very large, oval-bodied and large-headed fish with a wide mouth which has a protruding lower jaw.

[4] Epinephelus marginatus has two disjunct distribution centres, the main one is in the eastern Atlantic from the west coast of Iberia south along the western coast of Africa to the Cape of Good Hope, extending east into the south-western Indian Ocean, as far as southern Mozambique, with doubtful records from Madagascar and possibly Oman.

[2][3] E. marginatus is a protogynous hermaphrodite, meaning that all fish begin adult life as females but as they grow larger and older they develop into males.

[6] During the breeding season small clusters of a few tens of individuals form at specific spawning sites, an exception to their normally solitary existence.

Known sites where E. marginatus traditionally gather to spawn include the Medes Islands Marine Reserve in Spain, off Lampedusa in Italy and Port-Cros National Park in France, all in the Mediterranean; fishermen in Brazil suspect there are aggregations off the coast of Santa Catarina but so far none has been definitely found.

[8] The name Perca gigas was coined by the Danish zoologist Morten Thrane Brünnich (1737–1827) in 1768 but was unused and some authorities are of the view that this name should be suppressed by the International Commission on Zoological Nomenclature.

Conservation measures have included a spearfishing ban for ten years in France and bag limits in South Africa.

[1] In Turkey recommended actions have included no take zones along the Aegean and Mediterranean Sea coasts and a total fisheries ban for a minimum of 3–5 years.