Lionfish envenomation, HURTS LIKE A MF"ER!!!!!

[Thrillrider1]

I could only imagine the pain! Great story. I hope that is something I never have to go through.

 

[Serge Tao]

So, here's an idea for you - DON'T GO MESSING WITH THE WILDLIFE!!

I know this is a bit of a topic for grand debate, but how about we just accept that we are part of nature, not the rulers of it, that if we "mess up" and cause a change to the ecosystem balance, that's ok, that happens. The ecosystem will react, change slightly, develop. If lionfish come to dominate...OK, so they dominate! Good luck to them.

Lets do what we can do not affect the environment and ecosystems, absolutely. I'm definitely in favour of controls, rules and regs for release of fish into non-native habitats etc, but when something does happen, let's surely just accept it and let nature take it's course. After all, migratory animals (birds, fish etc) have been introducing "alien" species to new ecosystems for millenia. It's how the world got to be this way. We are just another animal, responsible for causing mixing. Let's not interfere, and especially if it's going to damage us!

Good point. But start at the beginning. Big containerships fill balast tanks in the tropics and release the water after unloading at their destination. Eco impact: laarge.
Next talk to fishermen complaining about catches getting smaller yearly due tio large numbers of squid preying on fish. Reason: lack of sharks. Which were caught by fishermen to begin with.
So if you use any Asian products, you are part of the lionfish problem, since you created a demand for that product, adding to the necessity for overseas shipping. Killing non-native lionfish is not about unbalancing but about restoring balance. Think about that next time you look at your mobile phone or television. Those screens came to you in a containership, likely accompanied by non-native wildlife in the ballasttanks, ready to unbalance the ecosystem near you.

 

[diverdoug1]

Good point. But start at the beginning. Big containerships fill balast tanks in the tropics and release the water after unloading at their destination. Eco impact: laarge.
Next talk to fishermen complaining about catches getting smaller yearly due tio large numbers of squid preying on fish. Reason: lack of sharks. Which were caught by fishermen to begin with.
So if you use any Asian products, you are part of the lionfish problem, since you created a demand for that product, adding to the necessity for overseas shipping. Killing non-native lionfish is not about unbalancing but about restoring balance. Think about that next time you look at your mobile phone or television. Those screens came to you in a containership, likely accompanied by non-native wildlife in the ballasttanks, ready to unbalance the ecosystem near you.

Ballast dumps certainly can cause transmission of invasive species, but questions persist about how the fish-which are natives of the Pacific Ocean-ended up in Atlantic waters. Some have fingered Hurricane Andrew in 1992 as a possible culprit. But Walter Courtenay, a fisheries biologist and professor emeritus at Florida Atlantic University in Boca Raton, says he would like to "put this idea to rest." Courtenay was the one who suggested a link between Andrew and the lionfish in 1995 in the Newsletter of the Introduced Fish Section, a publication of the American Fisheries Society. "It was second-hand information," says Courtenay, "which unfortunately" continues to spread, so that Andrew is often mentioned as the reason for the catastrophic lionfish invasion. Several days after the 1992 hurricane, Courtenay's informant told him about "six to eight lionfish" had been spotted alive in Florida's Biscayne Bay. They were thought to have escaped after Andrew smashed their large aquarium, which sat on a seawall at the edge of the bay. Courtenay published the report because he wanted people to keep an eye out for the lionfish and to track their spread if they successfully established a breeding population. But he never received a report about any additional sightings. He now thinks it unlikely that this event (if it happened) led to the current invasion. Further, James Morris Jr., an ecologist with the National Oceanic and Atmospheric Administration's Center for Coastal Fisheries and Habitat Research is in Beaufort, North Carolina, has recently discovered that a lionfish was caught as long ago as 1985 in Dania, Florida, north of Miami, "the first record of a lionfish being caught " off the Atlantic coast, he says. The "most likely vector" for all the invading lionfish, he says, was someone (or even several people) in the aquarium trade, releasing the fish and possibly eggs, into the wild.

 

[GOINDEEP2]

I take shears with me and give them a good ole trim then it's yummy in my tummy for mr. Lionfish!!

 

[diverdoug1]

Be careful, a lot of people get stung when timming the spines!

 

[Hank49]

It's just a matter of time....which is why I don't mess with them.

 

[Randy g]

Be careful, a lot of people get stung when timming the spines!

I got nailed from a already trimmed dorsal spin stub. I had cut the spines off of 4-5 fish went to pick up one and bag it. When I grabbed the trimmed fish to put it away, the boat lurched/jumped from a wave and I grabbed it alittle harder than normal and the spine stub penetrated my thumb. Burnt like hell for several hours and hurt for a couple of days.

Not a good thing fo sho!

I made a DIY zookeeper last week. Cant wait to try it out now.

 

[SangP]

Great post however, as tasty these critters are you might want not eat em too often.
The Daily Herald -Eating Lionfish is not recommended

As for removing the buggers from your waters I'm all for it but please wear some protective gear like Hexarmor gloves/sleeves or anything with superfabric.

Good luck hunting

 

[SeaHorse81]

I was on a Bahamas trip in early November, during which one of our party got stung on his thumb. He's in his 40s (so has a reasonable amount of life experience) and has said unequivocably that it's the worst pain he's ever felt. In his case, the extreme pain went on for hours and by the following day, was just slightly less awful. He surfaced after the initial sting but went out on later dives simply because he hoped that having something to do would distract him from the pain. I've been in some e-mail communication with him since, and it sounds like there was significant tissue damage. I just got an update from him today (more than six weeks since the sting), and he's still keeping it bandaged to reduce getting it bumped. He hopes it will be back to normal in another week or two.

I searched out this thread to see if his experience is typical. It looks like there's a range, but that he's not the only one to react quite severely. I've never gotten super close to a lionfish, but I'll give them even wider berth now...

 

[Hank49]

The thumb is a bad place to get stung. Lot of nerve endings and it's fleshy. I got stung there by a Crown of Thorns starfish and it was tender to the touch for months.