Video of reef shark circling and bumping a Cayman diver to get at his lionfish catch

[KathyV]

Updated:

Sorry! I thought it said March 2015 but it's from last year so I am sure that it is old news!

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=MuJmrv_KF24

 

[keyshunter]

Kathy,
That was pretty common during the time that DM's on Little Cayman speared Lionfish while leading dives. The sharks becoming rather pushy was the reason that it was discontinued on LC. The sharks soon become conditioned that the "snap" of the spear's band meant food. These days, the LC DM's get together once a week (weather permitting) to cull Lionfish on the dive sites. This has been very successful, since the DM's can concentrate on spearing Lionfish without having to babysit guests who are not accustomed to having sharks VERY close.

 

[AggieDiver]

Yeah, we were there in the first month or so that they were spearing lionfish during dives with guests present. There were a couple of sharks that had already learned to associate that snapping sound with a feeding opportunity. Dottie wound up wrestling momentarily with one that didn't want to wait for her to get the lionfish off the spear at some point that week. The practice of spearing on dives with guests present ended a week or two after that if I recall.

 

[KathyV]

I've seen the Reef Divers DMs spearing lionfish on dives with guests on Cayman Brac in the past but we didn't have any hungry sharks around, although it is not surprising that they would be interested!

 

[danvolker]

To me the more interesting issue would be whether the sharks in this dive site area, have begun hunting and eating lion fish themselves, without the divers help?
If the feeding actually created a taste for the lion fish, and has initiated a hunting and feeding behavior, that is something they should get video footage of!!!!

 

[AggieDiver]

I don't think anybody has seen the sharks or the groupers hunt lionfish for themselves yet, but what I have seen firsthand down there is groupers "pointing" at lionfish like a bird dog. They hang around a coral head, and when a diver approaches, they basically angle themselves to face directly down under the coral ledge. If you go look under the ledge, there is a lionfish. I saw it several times in the last two years on Little Cayman. We also had a whole boat of divers watch a nurse shark and a couple of grouper wrestle over something that was hiding under a coral head in about 15' of water right behind the boat at Mixing Bowl. We never got a look at what they were after, but there was something hiding under a small coral head and the nurse shark and several groupers were trying every which way to wedge their heads under the edges to get at whatever it was, and had no worry whatsoever about the divers hanging around to watch. We watched them work for about 5 minutes, but they were still at it for a while after we left to get on the boat.

 

[danvolker]

I don't think anybody has seen the sharks or the groupers hunt lionfish for themselves yet, but what I have seen firsthand down there is groupers "pointing" at lionfish like a bird dog. They hang around a coral head, and when a diver approaches, they basically angle themselves to face directly down under the coral ledge. If you go look under the ledge, there is a lionfish. I saw it several times in the last two years on Little Cayman. We also had a whole boat of divers watch a nurse shark and a couple of grouper wrestle over something that was hiding under a coral head in about 15' of water right behind the boat at Mixing Bowl. We never got a look at what they were after, but there was something hiding under a small coral head and the nurse shark and several groupers were trying every which way to wedge their heads under the edges to get at whatever it was, and had no worry whatsoever about the divers hanging around to watch. We watched them work for about 5 minutes, but they were still at it for a while after we left to get on the boat.

Goliaths are very smart opportunistic predators....They can quickly learn that humans can make the lion fish an easy meal....and help the human, help them

 

[HalcyonDaze]

To my knowledge there are two clips from the Caymans of the local predators taking shots at a lionfish on their own - one unsuccessful attempt by a moray eel and one successful attempt by a Nassau grouper.

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=HKLkQaMY8KQ

In both cases it looked like the trick was to get the lionfish out in the open and then go for the belly. I don't think it's so much a matter of convincing the local critters to develop a taste for the buggers; it's a matter of them figuring out how to take them down without getting a mouthful of hurt.

I've let sharks take my lionfish before; typically because I usually don't keep them and I'm not interested in carrying food on me in sharky spots. I wouldn't advocate people trying it on a regular basis; not sure if it's instilling any persistent bad habits or not but in any case Caribbean reef sharks are scrappers. A lot of the spearfishers I know would rather fend off a tiger shark than mix it up with a pack of reefies.

 

[HalcyonDaze]

Here's another recent clip of a Nassau grouper trying to take a bagged (apparently netted, not speared) lionfish from a DM: https://www.youtube.com/watch?t=13&v=96lYC6sYMgA

 

[caymaniac]

So, last week on a dive site off Grand Cayman (Caterpillar), there was this nurse shark who was hanging around with our dive group. The shark would bump , rub up against you and then swim to this hole in the coral where there was a lion fish, the shark was too big to get in the hole so he would come back to you rub up against you and then go to the hole where the lion fish was. This action lasted most of the dive, in fact it happened to me. I was amazed, fist a little scared and latter impressed, the shark was like a big dog and he knew what he wanted.