mcavana
Guest
Went diving yesterday 32 miles offshore Jacksonville in 105 feet of water on a sunken ship. Was a great set of dives with good visibility, but serious jelly fish (stung several times)
Anywhoo, I would have to say that although the dives were fantastic, I ended up feeling very upset at the end of the day. The wreck was absolutely covered with Lion Fish.
I had seen plenty about the invasive lion fish in Scuba magazines, but since I am new to offshore diving, this was my first opportunity to witness it in person. Those things have absolutely no fear of humans. I was literally inches away from them and they had no interest in moving. I jabbed one with my blunt point dive knife and it litteraly only scooted 2 inches and then turned and just looked at me with all its spines erect.
I had no idea how big these things get. there were several that were like 18 inches long! Our grouper numbers in the area have been very low for a couple years (have always been an avid offshore fisherman) and now I see why. They were hanging out in schools right about the same places as the grouper.
Are there any efforts at this point to try to control this problem? I am assuming not because even if we all dove at the same time and killed every one we saw, it would only be a couple months before they were all back again and then some.
This just sucks.
Anywhoo, I would have to say that although the dives were fantastic, I ended up feeling very upset at the end of the day. The wreck was absolutely covered with Lion Fish.
I had seen plenty about the invasive lion fish in Scuba magazines, but since I am new to offshore diving, this was my first opportunity to witness it in person. Those things have absolutely no fear of humans. I was literally inches away from them and they had no interest in moving. I jabbed one with my blunt point dive knife and it litteraly only scooted 2 inches and then turned and just looked at me with all its spines erect.
I had no idea how big these things get. there were several that were like 18 inches long! Our grouper numbers in the area have been very low for a couple years (have always been an avid offshore fisherman) and now I see why. They were hanging out in schools right about the same places as the grouper.
Are there any efforts at this point to try to control this problem? I am assuming not because even if we all dove at the same time and killed every one we saw, it would only be a couple months before they were all back again and then some.
This just sucks.
