Lionfish problem SOLVED

[RTBDiver]

While reading a few recent posts about the lionfish I just wanted to let it be known just how easy this problem can be resolved but it would take the Marine park to do their part.
Its very simple, let them allow hunting of lionfish and make it simple for locals without going through their hoops and buying their special colored spears that they likely sell above actual cost. Then let the Marine park start spreading the rumor, they are good at that, about lionfish being not only an aphrodisiac but also having male enhancement qualities. In no time there should be no lionfish around

 

[Rhone Man]

Bizarrely, I was noticing over the last couple of weeks that the lionfish seemed to have peaked in this part of the world, and if anything, in my highly unscientific opinion the populations seem to be dropping... don't know why.

 

[flareside]

Bizarrely, I was noticing over the last couple of weeks that the lionfish seemed to have peaked in this part of the world, and if anything, in my highly unscientific opinion the populations seem to be dropping... don't know why.

Maybe, they have run out of juvenile fish to eat?

Not exactly the solution everybody was looking for. :depressed:

 

[Hank49]

I'm out on the reef every week here and I'm seeing a few, but big ones. Not the multitude of small ones that I expected. And the other fish populations seem to be the same.
Hunting them isn't a bad thing but what about the deep ones, or the ones in places where no one dives. I would guess less than 20% of the length of Belize's reefs are dived at all. much less with any regularity.

 

[beaverdivers]

I believe Nature will take its course.

However, we are part of Nature and maybe the OP's idea will help.

 

[DandyDon]

The only problem with the plan is that the natives seem to overfish if allowed, so what's to stop them from also killing the other fish in the park...?

I'm out on the reef every week here and I'm seeing a few, but big ones. Not the multitude of small ones that I expected. And the other fish populations seem to be the same.
Hunting them isn't a bad thing but what about the deep ones, or the ones in places where no one dives. I would guess less than 20% of the length of Belize's reefs are dived at all. much less with any regularity.

Big lions will eat small lions.

I believe Nature will take its course.

Like with fire ants and kudzu...?

 

[RTBDiver]

Like with fire ants and kudzu...?

Don,
They said nature would take it's course, Not that nature would take care of the lionfish problem.

 

[PatW]

I think Lionfish are here to stay. From everything I have read, the Lionfish was released in Miami from private aquariums. Some think the release was intentional (large pets that had gotten too big for the tank) or accidental (washed into the canals during Hurricane Andrew). Be that as it may, the founding population of Lionfish was probably under 20 individuals. Now the Lionfish has large populations in virtually the entire Carribean. Now ask yourself, is there anyway that human hunting of the Lionfish is going to reduce the population below 20 individuals? Now it might be possible to find a majic bullet against them like Rhodalia cardinalis vs the cotton cushion scale. I think such a happy outcome is very unlikely.

 

[flareside]

Pat, Another theory is that they came in the ballast tanks of large freighters which is every bit as plausible. All we can really hope for is that they develop natural predators like they have in the southern oceans.

 

[Mike]

Pat, Another theory is that they came in the ballast tanks of large freighters which is every bit as plausible.

Ships had ballast tanks prior to 1995, so it's virtually an impossibility that suddenly lion fish in Indonesia suddenly around 1995 decided it was time to take a trip in a ships ballast tank when none ever did before.

Money needs to be spent to study the problem, especially a study of hunting them and a control reef where they are left un-molested. It's perfectly feasible that a natural equilibrium could be reached somehow in the Caribbean as it has in their native lands, but without scientific study it's not going to be figured out to easily and since if you only have a hammer, everything looks like a nail, until then, killing them in dive sites is currently the only method that appears to work to keep the native fish babies alive long enough to grow to the big ones we like to have around on the reefs to enjoy and take pictures of.

While reading a few recent posts about the lionfish I just wanted to let it be known just how easy this problem can be resolved but it would take the Marine park to do their part.
Its very simple, let them allow hunting of lionfish and make it simple for locals without going through their hoops and buying their special colored spears that they likely sell above actual cost. Then let the Marine park start spreading the rumor, they are good at that, about lionfish being not only an aphrodisiac but also having male enhancement qualities. In no time there should be no lionfish around

I get the joke in regard to Asians and wiping them out for aphrodisiac claims.

However, in seriousness, I don't think the locals are the answer, at least not to the dive sites. Just letting visiting divers wack them is all they need to do to cull the dive sites.