Feeding Lionfish to Other Fish

[Nation of Heat]

What's the general consensus on the practice of feeding newly-speared Lionfish to other fish? I have noticed more and more of this, and get the whole rationale (teaching other fish to hunt them, thus helping control the population). But to my admittedly untrained eye, the only result seems to be more and more fish following divers around looking for a meal. I didn't notice it a single time on any of my previous trips, and this year I've seen some version of that on probably 50% of my dives. Obviously it was born of good intentions, but seems like an awfully slippery slope.

Curious what everyone things about this practice.

 

[oldschoolto]

Don't like feeding them... Will leave the smaller one on the reef to be found by other fish..

Jim..

 

[SeaHorse81]

I haven't seen it producing results other than to inspire previously amicable reef sharks to become aggressive bullies toward divers. I always wondered about the notion of "teaching" a predator to hunt something since, being predators, that's pretty much their whole thing in life anyway. I'm pretty sure that if they're going to do it at all, they'll figure it out on their own.

 

[Dirty-Dog]

I don't generally feed them, but I do leave them on the bottom to be eaten.

 

[flyboy08]

One should never interfere with mother nature! Nothing good in the long run will come of it.

If you spear it, you should eat it.

 

[Steelyeyes]

I won't waste a perfectly good lion fish dinner and create a second problem at the same time.

 

[TMHeimer]

One should never interfere with mother nature! Nothing good in the long run will come of it.

If you spear it, you should eat it.

I guess we interfered 20+ years ago when we managed to get them into the W. Hemisphere. I wouldn't feed them to other fish because I too wouldn't want to attract sharks. My take is it doesn't matter much in nature as I figure anything divers do really doesn't reduce Lionfish populations enough to matter.
Whether you eat it or not IMHO is irrelevant.

 

[tilikum]

Our entire ocean ecology has already been interfered with. We would probably be better served by concentrating our efforts on other aspects of conservation than attempting to eradicate lionfish.

 

[drrich2]

The 'what to do with lion fish' issue is multiple choice.

1.) Leave it on the reef - returning the biomass to where it came from. I like it.

2.) Take it with you - not without risk. Check out Alert Diver's online article A Shark Tale. Spoiler: Reef shark makes for a speared lion fish & accidentally grabs a guy's hand (wasn't trying to feed them to sharks); blood ensues. The guy lives. There are different degrees - some people use those 'Zookeepers' to stow their catch in.

3.) Feed it directly to the wildlife. Saw a couple of reef sharks make life interesting for a dive guide once; finning around the reef with a lion fish waiting for an opportunity, well, the 'opportunity' might find you 1st. No one was hurt. I've read of green moral eels approaching divers in Roatan.

I don't have a 'my way is right, yours is wrong' moral view on it, but I'm partial to 1.).

Richard.

 

[Dirty-Dog]

The 'what to do with lion fish' issue is multiple choice.

1.) Leave it on the reef - returning the biomass to where it came from. I like it.

2.) Take it with you - not without risk. Check out Alert Diver's online article A Shark Tale. Spoiler: Reef shark makes for a speared lion fish & accidentally grabs a guy's hand (wasn't trying to feed them to sharks); blood ensues. The guy lives. There are different degrees - some people use those 'Zookeepers' to stow their catch in.

3.) Feed it directly to the wildlife. Saw a couple of reef sharks make life interesting for a dive guide once; finning around the reef with a lion fish waiting for an opportunity, well, the 'opportunity' might find you 1st. No one was hurt. I've read of green moral eels approaching divers in Roatan.

I don't have a 'my way is right, yours is wrong' moral view on it, but I'm partial to 1.).

Richard.

I'm partial to #1 myself. I have occasionally fed a critter, but the more I dive, the less inclined I am to do so.
While diving in Belize, the guides would routinely spear Lionfish and feed them to the sharks. As a result (or at least, I believe this to be the cause) the sharks followed us everywhere. Now, sharks are cool. I love sharks. And I love diving with sharks. But when there are more sharks than there are divers in your group, and the sharks are all around and between divers (to the point of making body contact with divers) you're not going to see a lot of other critters. Primarily nurse sharks, but a few reef sharks.
When a Lionfish was shot, you'd be risking your hands to try and keep it. The guides would shoot them and immediately hold the spear out. One tourist had a bag and was planning to save his. I don't know if he did, because Sue, Kim and I moved ourselves away from the group. In sight, but out of range, as it were.