We investigate the dynamics of high energy dual regime unidirectional Erbium-doped fiber laser in ring cavity, which is passively Q-switched and mode-locked through the use of an environmentally friendly graphene filament–chitin film-based saturable absorber. The graphene–chitin passive saturable absorber allows the option for different operating regimes of the laser by simple adjustment of the input pump power, yielding, simultaneously, highly stable and high energy Q-switched pulses at 82.08 nJ and 1.08 ps mode-locked pulses. The finding can have applications in a multitude of fields due to its versatility and the regime of operation that is on demand.