Feeding Lionfish to Other Fish

[Jayfarmlaw]

On a trip to Roatan last February, we had several morays swim with us. Probably not their "normal" behavior, but a learned habit. Either way, it was great and after watching a large moray devour a large lionfish gave me a whole new respect for my not so little green friends.

Right or wrong, it was great. Greater than great. When I am older and lying in a bed in a nursing home somewhere, that will be one of the stories I tell several times a day.....grinning from ear to ear.

Jay

 

[northernone]

During my AOW class the instructor was feeding bull sharks off his spear. With 5 circling us some appeared quite enthusiastic about the handouts.

Not sure the environmental impact but made for a memorable dive with great photo opportunities. I'm not sure how I feel about being associated with meals.

Regards,
Cameron

 

[oldschoolto]

I don't like the feeding from the spear... It's bad to "feed" in the wilderness IMHO.. But, letting a lionfish go that's half dead and letting a grouper or eel eat him.. Does let them get a taste for them and maybe start to hunt them..

But look at all the dives that they do for vacation divers were the fish are only one step from being trained for SeaWorld..

Jim..

 

[MPW50]

Overall bad plan! Never good to associate humans with food especially with wild animals. I too have seen the Moray Eel's acting aggressively and out of character. Pretty much if you had a spear and/or lion keeper they were all over you. A week before our most recent trip to St. Croix a lady was actually bit in the hand in open water by a large Moray eel requiring many stitches. Additionally, study after study are showing that we are not "teaching" these predators a taste for lion fish but rather an association to divers. As mentioned in an earlier post on this thread, this issue will likely work itself out over time as many of these predator fish begin losing their natural forage and move on to lion fish.

As is usually the ethical rule on the "on land" world, "you kill it, you eat it!".

Happy Diving!

 

[oldschoolto]

I don't agree with that.. There is a big difference between "Feeding" lionfish to fish and cutting it's spine and letting it flop around the reef till someone eats it.. Last night I had a black and white Moray eel trying to get at my zoo keeper.. I don't think it was anything other than the smell of blood.. Just like all spear fisherman have to deal with predators going after your kill...

Jim..

 

[Grisha]

I've seen this happening a lot recently. the consensus is to leave the dead fish floating for predators to eat. NEVER leave it on your spear or stay very close to the carcass. you can watch from a distance, but don't allow the predators to think you leave food for them, if possible.

 

[Steelyeyes]

For some reason the groupers, eels, sharks, etc. don't recognize lionfish as food while they are alive. Once dead it's a whole different enchilada. As has been mentioned before, feeding a dead or nearly dead lionfish to a predator doesn't teach them to hunt lionfish on their own, it just teaches them that you provide food. Same rule applies here as in the woods, don't feed the bears.

 

[drrich2]

On our early August 2017 St. Croix trip, a guide told me that years ago if they wanted to see the reef sharks, they'd go down around 80 or 90 feet deep (I'm talking north coast wall diving off St. Croix, not west coast). Nowadays, the reef sharks are cruising much shallower, and I experienced them coming around pretty close to us, making more than one pass, even though on our boat dives there was no baiting, feeding or lion fish spearing. Nothing threatening.

It was thought the sharks have moved shallower due to being fed lion fish, that this change in natural behavior pattern was concerning, and that nowadays they tend to leave slain lion fish laying on the reef to be scavenged by whatever, rather than direct 'diver-to-fish' hand-offs of the lion fish to the sharks.

Richard.

 

[oldschoolto]

I shot a lionfish that had it's tail bitten off... And healed... This was in Bonaire.. Divers have seen some Lionfish being eaten by yellowtails and Groupers.. The small amount of smaller lionfish on the reefs in Bonaire , Lead some of us to think that nature is starting to fix our screw-up...

Jim...

 

[BRT]

I shot a lionfish that had it's tail bitten off... And healed... This was in Bonaire.. Divers have seen some Lionfish being eaten by yellowtails and Groupers.. The amount of smaller lionfish on the reefs in Bonaire , Lead some of us to think that nature is starting to fix are screw-up...

Jim...

I have seen a couple of lionfish with tails bitten off.