The Unintended Consequences of Hunting Lionfish

[iDiveCayman]

We have a problem in the Cayman Islands with marine predators associating divers with food largely due to local DMs feeding eels, sharks and other predators lionfish to increase their tip potential. Has anyone else experienced this?

When Danger Approaches | Cayman Islands Diving | iDive Blog

 

[diver0008]

informative article, and compelling and disturbing video.

 

[uncfnp]

Interesting timing for this thread. I was diving Grand Cayman for the first time a few weeks ago and we had this discussion on one of the dive boats. I think we saw the tame mutton snapper on every single dive while there and on one dive witnessed a large green eel actively swimming after and trying to bite a fellow diver. Fortunately he wasn't successful. And there was no lionfish hunting on that dive to have attracted the eel to us.

We had heard that this was becoming a problem in Florida too and I know the DM's on the boat we dive will no longer feed lionfish to predators but we had never encountered quite such aggressive behavior there as what we saw in GC.

 

[Belzelbub]

Doesn't surprise me at all. Fish definitely do learn to make associations. This is why I'm not a fan of shark feeding dives. Same basic concept. At first it seems harmless, but eventually, the fish start to make association that that weird looking thing that blows bubbles = food.

 

[mattia_v]

Yeah...smart enought to associate, too stupid to make meaningful distinctions.

 

[tursiops]

Let's be clear: the problem per se is not hunting lionfish.
The problem is what is done with the lionfish that is caught/speared. Feeding them to predators may have been a good idea at one time, but it has been extensively proven through research and anecdote that it is NOT a good idea...it accomplishes nothing other than the unfortunate behavior being described here.

Solution? make it clear that a DM gets NO tip if he/she feeds a lionfish to a predator. Have that be part of a briefing from the divers to the DM after the DM gives his/her briefing to the divers.

 

[mmmbelows]

We have a problem in the Cayman Islands with marine predators associating divers with food largely due to local DMs feeding eels, sharks and other predators lionfish to increase their tip potential. Has anyone else experienced this?

It happens anywhere you feed marine life. This problem has been brought up for years and years and years all over the Caribbean in country after country when the notion that you could train certain fish to eat lion fish by feeding them and getting them used to the taste was spreading over the Caribbean country after country.

It's the same thing that happened when the lion fish problem first arrived in the Caribbean it swept slowly from country to country and each country acted like theirs was the only one that had ever faced the problem, ignoring the other countries in the Caribbean who were dealing with it before them. Essentially reinventing the wheel over and over again. The feeding issue is the same thing, your post demonstrates it asking if anyone has experienced this before, it's been going on for a long, long time, but different countries for some reason keep themselves isolated and think the problem is unique to them.

Don't feed the fish. Don't reward dive masters who want to put on a show for their divers feeding lionfish to marine life. They do this out of ignorance of the consequences or know the consequences but ego or desire for tips over-rides their good sense.