The red spotted grouper has been considered to be at risk of being overexploited in China and its artificial seeds had the low larval survival rates and low stability. Efficient measures therefore must be taken for surveillance

conservation and utilization of this species with its available genetic resources. In this study

a total of 7 simple sequence repeat (SSR) markers were used to assess genetic diversity for the red spotted groupers from 7 different typical fishing grounds across Southern China Sea and East China Sea. The high polymorphism information contents at the 7 markers implied that the red spotted groupers keep natural variation from different offshore fishing grounds in China. Analysis of genetic differentiation indicated substantial divergence among the red spotted groupers. Phylogenetic analyses displayed a remarkable degree of consistency between geographic locations and the pattern of genetic differentiation.