Lionfish off Bonaire

[DiverVince]

Eradication through hand capture or hand killing or any sort is not possible. You can only hope to maintain to some degree a small swath of reef system.

We have to keep in mind that recreational diving is to 130ft. So beyond 130 ft the lion fish are breeding and eating all day long totally un-harrased. Every island in the caribbean can only be a fortress in a wilderness, with control of the first 130 ft of depth around it, beyond that is an an endless supply of more lionfish in an uncontrollable breeding ground, which will keep creating a virtually endless supply waiting to take the place of the ones removed within that 130 ft depth control zone.

So Mike am I correct to interpret your posting that since it's utterly hopeless we do nothing?
If so, I vehemently disagree. We need to create a culinary demand for the product. The fish are now approaching edible size.
History has proven that man can be a very effective force at wiping out species.
After all, it's our fault the dam fish is even in the Caribbean and Atlantic. We should try to control it as efficiently as possible, and perhaps turn it into an advantage (if possible) as well..

 

[ONESPEED]

 

[Korsu]

I don't know if it is utterly hopeless, but most of the scientists I've talked to believe Lionfish are here to stay. Can we cull the numbers enough to minimize their damage? I haven't seen any reports that suggest populations are being controlled.
Lionfish are extremely prolific and breed at a young age. As above they can be found in 3 to 300ft of water and will populate the recreational side of an island as well as the exposed side.
Personally I have not seen a Tiger or Nassau Grouper here in Curacao in three years of continuous diving and saw my first Marbled Grouper yesterday. It is a very rare occurrence to see sharks. If there are no predators for the small Lionfish and you can't dent the breeding numbers, it is unlikely they will be eradicated.
The real problem is that all the islands are pretty much fished out of what might be logical predators. Doesn't mean I wouldn't try to take as many as possible as they are pretty good eating. They are hard to kill with a spear as they are very compact and if you just pierce the body
and the fish gets away it is likely to live. The vital organs are in a small area. Vince you may be pretty skilled but it probably took some practice, so there will be a learning curve for lots of divers.
Lastly, small Lionfish are showing up in the stomachs of Green Morays, Snappers and small Groupers. These were found in dead fish, so did eating the Lionfish kill them? Not known.
Parallel Pacific species get away with eating them. There is a lot of unknown biology regarding the Atlantic invasion. Small studies are ongoing here in Curacao, but I am not sure of any strong government involvement.

 

[Korsu]

Now if ONESPEED can catch Lionfish like he does lobsters, there may be a solution.

 

[shred]

All we have to do is convince the Japanese that Lion fish are a great aphrodisiac and they will be hunted to extinction,similar to whats happening to the Blue fin tuna.

 

[Mike]

So Mike am I correct to interpret your posting that since it's utterly hopeless we do nothing?
If so, I vehemently disagree. We need to create a culinary demand for the product. The fish are now approaching edible size.
History has pr oven that man can be a very effective force at wiping out species.
After all, it's our fault the dam fish is even in the Caribbean and Atlantic. We should try to control it as efficiently as possible, and perhaps turn it into an advantage (if possible) as well..

It's utterly hopeless for recreational divers to eliminate them. As I said you can't even get to them, rec divers are only going to cover a tiny percentage of the habitat they are breeding in.

It becomes a battle of controlling them in areas that you want to protect from them, like a house's back lawn that backs up to a field. You can weed your grass and keep your small area of lawn looking good, but you can't eradicate the weeds blowing in from the huge field adjacent to your lawn as long as that huge field continues to produce weeds they are going to blow into your lawn.

Eradication won't be possible, only limited protection of small high value reefs by culling them from those areas, but there will always be more to replace the ones removed.

In Cozumel dive masters have been routinely killing lionfish for a few years, maintaining limited areas of the reef system, that's all that can be hoped for is maintaining select areas within the limits of rec diving depths, never elimination.

 

[pdive]

What about slurp guns? Probably more effective then coaxing a fish into a net and less damaging than poking around the coral with a spear.

 

[tardmaster]

The reason that the lionfish are proliferating so fast is that the present method of poplitically correct gently coaxing them in a net is not often successful. Once someone tries to capture a lionfish, he is extremely wary and twice as hard to catch. Last week I saw a DM try to get one but that sucker knew how to play the game and buried himself in the reef. Let me repeat, if they are really serious about getting rid of these fish before they wipe out all of the small reef fish etc they better change tactics. Training DM's to Use a trident hand spear would be a quick simple and successful strategy. Remember, very little diving is done on the east side of the island so the lionfish are gobbling up all the small reef fish there before then can migrate over to the west side where most of the diving occurs.

i would volunteer in a heart beat to collect them during my trip.

 

[Mossman]

All we have to do is convince the Japanese that Lion fish are a great aphrodisiac and they will be hunted to extinction,similar to whats happening to the Blue fin tuna.

Blue-fin tuna aren't an aphrodesiac, they're more prized for their flavor and, because of their high price, a status symbol. Some members of the scorpionfish family already are consumed - I had "live sculpin" in a local sushi bar - the chef wrapped him in a towel while dispatching and filleting him to avoid the spines. Sashimi was mild-flavored, with a fim texture. Maybe it would work.

On the other hand, if you can get the Chinese to switch their preference from shark fin soup to lionfish spine soup, you'll be doing the world a great favor as she will eventually miss her sharks far more than she misses her blue fins.

 

[tardmaster]

We've inquired to recieve a special permit to spear lionfish only. I will keep the board posted with the results. We're not too hopefull, lol !!


[countdown=6/12/2010 9:40 AM;]Count down:[/countdown] and the NTA club invades Bonaire