drrich2
Contributor
Save for the native Americans, we don't belong here either!
They were invasive, too. Just earlier.
We certainly are invasive, have no regular preditors, I guess you could eat us, but that doesn't seem to be a priority. As rediculous as that sounds, is it really any different?
Our species spread naturally without undue displacement 'help' from another.
As to whether eradicating lionfish to protect the environment is different that genocide against humans for same purpose, that depends on the value system by which you assign similarity and difference. Holding a Christian viewpoint, I deem the value of a human being as vastly greater than that of a lionfish. While humans have created a far greater detriment to the environment than invasive lionfish, to me at least, in the context of the value system I judge by, yes, it is very different indeed.
Not knowing your value system, I cannot answer for you whether genocide and cannibalism as a response to perceived human over population is 'really any different.'
As I said...no one is going to change their minds, and we (not me) will possibly make a dent to eradicate a species and only because they've learned to eat well and be capable of defending themselves (to an extent) from us. I swore I wasn't going to get into this, but it's almost become the norm to dive and see someone killing fish. I'm not down there to see that...I'm down there to take in the beauty of everything that most people never get to see, and leave no mark that I've ever been there.
We don't expect to eradicate lionfish. Culling them is intended to reduce populations on frequently dove reefs at recreational depths to provide a 'safe harbor' from their predation to those native species they threaten, which might just give those species more time to adapt, or at least slightly delay their extinction. Nobody expects to eliminate lionfish from the Caribbean. The only way for that to happen would probably entail biowarfare, some custom germ, and we aren't at a level scientifically to safely utilize something that like. Lionfish are here to stay; we'd like to help some of their 'victims' hold out, too.
The lionfish are a big 'mark' the human race left on the Caribbean & U.S. waters, so the very fact of their existence defies any pretense of pristine conditions. People killing them are trying to mitigate that mark, to a point. And for everyone who finds seeing lionfish nailed distasteful, there's likely someone else who thinks it'd be fun to take a crack at them. As for the beauty of things most people don't get to see, people sure won't see them if the lionfish eat them!
Richard.