Gosh darnit, dem' dare' lionfishes!

[bilsant]

Within our little group the universal raised middle finger has been adopted below water to signify "lionfish".

I've accidentally shocked at least one innocent bystander from another dive group who was on the same wreck.

 

[blackvans1234]

what I would use, is the shark symbol with fingers spread out, as opposed to together

 

[DiveDivaDM]

Just curious,
is there an accepted standard hand signal for lionfish yet?

We are on Bonaire this week. Our DM this morning used 2 hands together with the fingers intertwined and wiggling. I knew what he meant immediately. He shot 2 in 1 hole under a small coral head and dealt with them 1 at a time as described here...

 

[Reef_Haven]

I'd prefer something one handed. The middle finger salute seems to be popular in my circle as well, although it can have a number of other meanings. Pretty common right after giving the OOA sign.

 

[mselenaous]

I went to the Reef.org class the other night. The Lionfish signal is hand over head just like shark but with wiggling fingers to resemble their spines.

Randy IS that Jedi Master LionTamer! Take a trip with him on Emerald Charters In Jupiter and he'll be more than happy to teach you all the tricks.
And then he'll prepare Lionfish sashimi on the boat too.

 

[Reef_Haven]

Spins???
Oh! I get it, Spiny Fins...

 

[Dirty-Dog]

We use the finger gun that we all learned as children to point out Lionfish. First, shoot them with the finger gun, then with the foldspear.

I can't speak for your locale, but as others have pointed out, they like to lurk under ledges, out of current. Get down really low and look up under the ledges and into the little holes.

You can see their typical hidey holes in this video.



I don't find that you have to be particularly slow or cautious approaching them. The little bastards aren't afraid of anything. But as others have said, do be very careful getting them off your spear afterwards.

 

[Mark Derail]

Just curious,
is there an accepted standard hand signal for lionfish yet?

There is, interlace both hands, alternating fingers, move hands back & forth. Imagine a flashlight shining on your hands, looking at a wall. Your fingers are the spines, your hands the body, your thumbs the tail.

 

[Reef_Haven]

It would be pretty rare for me to have both hands free on any dive.