Nassau Grouper Stalks and Eats LF - Unaided by human

[Dave Dillehay]

Yeah!!!!!!!!!! Finaly a resident creature wants to eat LF. I still will kill any I see and leave them for the worms (bacteria, or any other that will benifit from their dead body).

GOOD GOSH….Don't waste them. They are delicious!

Also, I would not at all be surprised if they do hunt cooperatively. Having hand fed and petted many of them in the 90s, while DM ing (it was legal then), I am convinced they are as smart as my yellow lab. So much so, that I will never eat grouper.


Dave Dillehay
Aldora Divers

 

[ronski101]

this is a setup. that lionfish had been already speared or it would not have been swimming out away from the reef. note, toward the end, it is swimming upside down just before the grouper eats it. Little Cayman DM's have been feeding lionfish to grouper and sharks for several years now but I don't think the grouper are hunting them down by themselves yet as they wait for the DM to spear it.

 

[Christi]

This practice of feeding the dead lionfish to marine life has got to stop! The sharks and grouper are becoming increasingly more aggressive as they are being conditioned. A friend of mine diving with another op a few days ago was aggressively bumped - TWICE - he was writing on his slate - no one in the group including the DM was hunting. The whole thing is on video and the shark literally swam straight to him from 100 yards or so away - I assume his slate or his motions of writing on the slate resembled a dead lionfish or the motion of feeding one.

Please do not encourage your DM's to hunt and feed the marine life. After a DM spears one, they should leave the dead lionfish on the bottom and let nature run it's course!

Thanks for doing your part

 

[ggunn]

This practice of feeding the dead lionfish to marine life has got to stop! The sharks and grouper are becoming increasingly more aggressive as they are being conditioned. A friend of mine diving with another op a few days ago was aggressively bumped - TWICE - he was writing on his slate - no one in the group including the DM was hunting. The whole thing is on video and the shark literally swam straight to him from 100 yards or so away - I assume his slate or his motions of writing on the slate resembled a dead lionfish or the motion of feeding one.

Please do not encourage your DM's to hunt and feed the marine life. After a DM spears one, they should leave the dead lionfish on the bottom and let nature run it's course!

Thanks for doing your part

I agree. I don't think that feeding speared lionfish to groupers, morays, and sharks encourages them to do anything other than look to divers for handouts. We don't need anything in the water considering divers to be a food source.

 

[Qnape]

I also agree that spearing and feeding lionfish to other wildlife will certainly have an undesirable influence on behavior in sharks, eels and grouper. I am not ready to write off the video as fake, however, due to what I saw while diving in Little Cayman in 2013. I have previously posted the following linked video, and shot it myself off Little Cayman. The DM "shooed" the lion fish away from the reef where we found it with a fin, and the grouper then got between it and the reef and took it on its own after finding the attack angle it liked. The lionfish was not previously injured in any way; I was there when it was found, watched as the DM initially swept it away from the reef using his fin, then watched and filmed it as it was taken. I saw this behavior repeated several times over several days.

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=zf4JExrJpMM

In many ways this is no different from spearing and feeding since the contact was initiated by the DM, so the association with divers remains along with the potential to unnaturally change the predator's behavior. I'm not suggesting that what I observed is a good idea, for that reason. But at least I can attest that in the encounters I saw the lionfish had not been injured in any way and were taken whole. In one case I saw it was regurgitated, then re-swallowed.

 

[Sue Sue]

Hey there Qnape...I recall this video and the info you provided. After adding your input to this most recent video, it does certainly appear that perhaps the Grouper are on the right track....Hopefully, the idea is passed on and shared among the entire Grouper community. Imagine this..... Chip and Dale Cozumel talking to each other ...."Hey, did you here about Grover the Grouper in Little Cayman and Buddy the Grouper in Belize...they are actually chasing those guys and getting some delicious meals, how about we give it a try !!! " I agree that by sweeping the Lionfish out into the open is still giving assistance, but maybe this practice is what is teaching the Belize grouper to learn how to do it on its own.....as opposed to actually being fed.... hmmmm....something to think about..

BTW Qnape, how are you doing?? Think of you and your daughter often
Double S

I also agree that spearing and feeding lionfish to other wildlife will certainly have an undesirable influence on behavior in sharks, eels and grouper. I am not ready to write off the video as fake, however, due to what I saw while diving in Little Cayman in 2013. I have previously posted the following linked video, and shot it myself off Little Cayman. The DM "shooed" the lion fish away from the reef where we found it with a fin, and the grouper then got between it and the reef and took it on its own after finding the attack angle it liked. The lionfish was not previously injured in any way; I was there when it was found, watched as the DM initially swept it away from the reef using his fin, then watched and filmed it as it was taken. I saw this behavior repeated several times over several days.

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=zf4JExrJpMM

In many ways this is no different from spearing and feeding since the contact was initiated by the DM, so the association with divers remains along with the potential to unnaturally change the predator's behavior. I'm not suggesting that what I observed is a good idea, for that reason. But at least I can attest that in the encounters I saw the lionfish had not been injured in any way and were taken whole. In one case I saw it was regurgitated, then re-swallowed.

 

[Qnape]

Hey there Qnape...I recall this video and the info you provided. After adding your input to this most recent video, it does certainly appear that perhaps the Grouper are on the right track....Hopefully, the idea is passed on and shared among the entire Grouper community. Imagine this..... Chip and Dale Cozumel talking to each other ...."Hey, did you here about Grover the Grouper in Little Cayman and Buddy the Grouper in Belize...they are actually chasing those guys and getting some delicious meals, how about we give it a try !!! " I agree that by sweeping the Lionfish out into the open is still giving assistance, but maybe this practice is what is teaching the Belize grouper to learn how to do it on its own.....as opposed to actually being fed.... hmmmm....something to think about..

BTW Qnape, how are you doing?? Think of you and your daughter often
Double S

Hiya SueSue!

It was certainly the intent of the dm's at LCBR to see if the grouper would learn to take the lionfish alive on their own, and perhaps even teach them how to drive them away from the reef where they could be taken. Or so they said at the bar, anyway. I don't know if they've had any success, but I certainly have not seen any other videos or accounts of this strategy. The experience did prove to my satisfaction that grouper, at least, are capable of taking live and uninjured lionfish caught away from a sheltering reef. Can they learn to chase them from shelter on their own? It would be nice.

My daughter and I are doing fine; I'll send you an update by PM as I don't want to hijack the thread. Love to dive with you on the island again some time!

 

[Sue Sue]

Would it not be better to bring the speared Lionfish to the surface to be consumed rather than leaving them behind which may encourage fish to expect a free meal and learn aggressive behaviour ? My DH and I have experienced aggressive behaviour while diving Cozumel from free swimming Morays as well as stalking behavior from Groupers and other fish that were looking for an easy snack. We have not however, experienced any aggressive behaviour or stalking from fish in Bonaire where the speared Lionfish are stored in Zookeepers and brought to surface. ( Home ) There, once back on shore or on the boat, the spines of Larger Sized Lionfish are cut off and the fish is fileted. The smaller ones are basically cut up and thrown back into the water. Just wondering... Double S