Finally the Roatan Marine Park gets a clue

[RTBDiver]

It has been years since the RMP became aware of the lionfish issue and for whatever reason they took a pretty cool stand to it asking people to simply report sightings. By that time we all knew from other areas they were encroaching and florida had suggested killing them on sight more than two years earlier but the RMP wanted to study it. The interesting thing now is who gets to carry a spear? They are illegal in the park but park people carry them. I can imagine the guy with a bag on the bottom full of lobster getting caught with a spear and showing a little lionfish to the ranger man and all is OK..

But seriously, At least thay have taken to heart what i and many others have been suggesting for years and are now starting to promote lionfish as a dinner

http://www.roatanmarinepark.com/news/lionfish-the-other-white-meat


Too bad they did not just go for the kill a few years ago when the rest of the caribbean and atlantic coast already knew they were problem. I wonder what good info they got by not killing them outright and "studying" them

 

[Cajuncru Diver]

:mooner:Lionfish solution: To completely eradicate lionfish from the reefs simply bring 20 cajuns to the island, tell them there is a sixty day season on lionfish, there is a daily bag limit of 5 lionfish per day...then publish that the Season is Closed!

 

[nagel]

Roatan definately has a problem with Lion Fish. We seen atleast a dozen on every dive. I did 19 dives in a week.....that's over 200 Lion Fish that I seen. Or DM speared atleast 5 on a lot of dives.

In contrast, last year in Bonaire they were telling us they had found 5. They told us that if we seen a Lion Fish to note the area and report it and they would come out and catch it in a net. We did not see one Lion Fish is Bonaire last year. I've heard that this year, Bonaire is giving corks and streamers to divers to mark any area that a Lion Fish is found. Don't know if they have more or if they are just trying to keep it from getting out of hand.

I wasn't aware that Roatan didn't take an aggresive approach when they first started noticing them. This might have been a costly error.

Snagel

 

[castaways01]

Similar Lionfish "white meat" articles were published elsewhere recently and Florida Conch Divers on Scubaboard has been printing recipes for a long time. They are good, but IMO not worth the filet effort.

There are so many Lionfish on the reefs and small coral clusters in Roatan, it would take a real organized effort to make any dent in eradicating them. Its not uncommon to see 30 or more on a dive, especially from Oakridge east beyond Port Royal. Several divers here are carrying short paralyzer tip pole spears. One of our friends got 22 on a dive at Caribe Pointe recently and Larry Coon (East End Divers) always gets a large number when he goes out. I've even gotten a few while snorkeling in shallow water.

Roatan's effort needs to mirror what they are doing in the FL keys. A recent tournament (one in a series of three) got 500 Lionfish in one weekend:
Over 500 invasive lionfish harvested in inaugural Florida Keys Lionfish Tournament

In the future I can see the rapidly growing number of Lionfish making diving the reef less safe.

 

[castaways01]

Roatan definately has a problem with Lion Fish.

I wasn't aware that Roatan didn't take an aggresive approach when they first started noticing them. This might have been a costly error.

Snagel

I saw one in Roatan while snorkeling near Neverstain Bight over 5 years ago. I contacted the marine park and was told that I made a mistake. There were no Lionfish here.

 

[RTBDiver]

Similar Lionfish "white meat" articles were published elsewhere recently and Florida Conch Divers on Scubaboard has been printing recipes for a long time. They are good, but IMO not worth the filet effort.

.

What may not be worth the effort for some could be a payday for others. My watchman will regularly head out a few hours at night catching land crabs. Generally a bushel or so, then early the next day they are rinsed a few times and boiled, then his girlfriend and some of her family spend the better part of the day picking the meat out of them, next day the meat is cooked some more with island spices , then the pick crab is ready for sale for a mere 80 lempira per pound and they are quite happy with that, I am sure there are many who would love a class in spearing and selling the critters, while still learning the cleaning procedure the spines can even be hit with a torch before cleaning which neutralizes the venom. Who here would not want to try them while visiting if given the opportunity?

 

[Mike]

Killing lionfish 2 years ago wouldn't have prevented their colonization of Roatan. Remember that even if you could kill every lion fish within the 130 ft of recreational diving, there will be plenty more breeding beyond 130 ft.

The best Roatan can do is like everywhere else, just end up protect the areas they want to protect from them. The process is similar to weeds in you lawn. If you own 1000 acres of property around your house you aren't going to be able to keep all of it weed free. You can keep the area around your house lush and weed free, but the other 999 acres are going to do what they will.

 

[RTBDiver]

Killing lionfish 2 years ago wouldn't have prevented their colonization of Roatan. Remember that even if you could kill every lion fish within the 130 ft of recreational diving, there will be plenty more breeding beyond 130 ft.

The best Roatan can do is like everywhere else, just end up protect the areas they want to protect from them. The process is similar to weeds in you lawn. If you own 1000 acres of property around your house you aren't going to be able to keep all of it weed free. You can keep the area around your house lush and weed free, but the other 999 acres are going to do what they will.

This is all quite true yet whether weeding a lawn or weeding out the lionfish, the more helping out the better it will be. Working on making the lionfish a profitable resource and enlarging the groupd who can and hunt them rather than a limited number of dive shop folks , along with getting some restaurants in on the program sure wont hurt. I imagine it was not many years ago that those on the Bay islands and other similar areas would have also said they cannot make a dent in the iguana, sea turtle, lobster and conch populations just to name a few.

 

[farsidefan1]

Simple solution: publish reports that the long stiff spines on lionfish endow anyone eating their meat with a similar reaction. Publish in the countries that are big on rhino horns and the like.:mooner: On a more serious note (although I still think that is a great idea) the problem is that lionfish have no common preditors in these waters. While eradication is impossible we just need to put man in that role. Eradication impossible, some degree of control, doable

 

[gsk3]

In contrast, last year in Bonaire they were telling us they had found 5. They told us that if we seen a Lion Fish to note the area and report it and they would come out and catch it in a net. We did not see one Lion Fish is Bonaire last year. I've heard that this year, Bonaire is giving corks and streamers to divers to mark any area that a Lion Fish is found. Don't know if they have more or if they are just trying to keep it from getting out of hand.

Bonaire has been very successful in their lionfish population control efforts. We didn't see a single one while we were there in July. And yes, they're handing out streamers with corks on them to mark sightings.