Legality of lionfishing on the brac
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I'm in Grand Cayman, not on the Brac, but the laws are the same in all the Cayman Islands.
You first must take a Department of Environment lionfish culling class. It's generally a half-day class where they teach you about the lionfish, about the problem, how not to shoot yourself in the eye with the spear, that sort of thing. You then get issued a DOE lionfish culling card.
Then you have to find an operator that has had spears issued by the DOE. You can't do it on your own, since the spear is issued to the dive operator. Here in Grand Cayman you are supposed to be on a guided dive. They may let you take it on your own, but I was told this is against the law.
Lastly you must have a containment device for the fish. You can't leave them dead on the reef (if you managed to actually kill them) and you can't feed them to other marine life.
I did a quick search and was unable to find a list of operators who have been issued the spears and licenses, so I'm not about the Brac.
It is against the law to bring your own spears to Cayman. If they find it at the airport in your baggage when you arrive, most likely they will just make you throw it out, but it is against the law, and you could be arrested for having it.
In full disclosure, I work for Divetech in Grand Cayman. I've observed a number of lionfish classes being taught. If you have the occasion to take on on GC, this is a bit biased, but I recommend taking Drew's class (Scobydrew on SB.) He's very knowledgable and enthusiastic on the subject, and also volunteers his time for the Cayman Underwater Lionfish League.
Tony
You first must take a Department of Environment lionfish culling class. It's generally a half-day class where they teach you about the lionfish, about the problem, how not to shoot yourself in the eye with the spear, that sort of thing. You then get issued a DOE lionfish culling card.
Then you have to find an operator that has had spears issued by the DOE. You can't do it on your own, since the spear is issued to the dive operator. Here in Grand Cayman you are supposed to be on a guided dive. They may let you take it on your own, but I was told this is against the law.
Lastly you must have a containment device for the fish. You can't leave them dead on the reef (if you managed to actually kill them) and you can't feed them to other marine life.
I did a quick search and was unable to find a list of operators who have been issued the spears and licenses, so I'm not about the Brac.
It is against the law to bring your own spears to Cayman. If they find it at the airport in your baggage when you arrive, most likely they will just make you throw it out, but it is against the law, and you could be arrested for having it.
In full disclosure, I work for Divetech in Grand Cayman. I've observed a number of lionfish classes being taught. If you have the occasion to take on on GC, this is a bit biased, but I recommend taking Drew's class (Scobydrew on SB.) He's very knowledgable and enthusiastic on the subject, and also volunteers his time for the Cayman Underwater Lionfish League.
Tony
Are there still lots of lionfish at 120' or shallower in the Caymans?
AggieDiver
Contributor
I can only speak for Little Cayman, but in a week of diving in the Marine Park in September, we only saw 2 small lionfish all week. Each time we go over the last 5-6 years, it seems like we are seeing fewer, so hopefully it is an indication that something has figured out they are food. Or the culling efforts have been very effective in the Marine Park.
We were on GC and CB around this time last year, and we saw more Lionfish around GC than CB. I think we only saw one or two small ones on Brac. Below is a thread about a deep diving rebreather trip to Brac that discusses the lack of lionfish around Brac.
Cayman Brac Invasion
Ricardo V.
Contributor
I wish it would have been easier for a visitor to harvest lionfish, but there are specific licensing requirements and other conditions that the Cayman environmental management group has in place regulating this activity.
I tried to find out before visiting and just have the license ready, but could not get the information nor procedures clear before visiting.
At this time, the Cayman park and/or environmental managers are doing a really good job harvesting lionfish in Little Cayman. I was surprised to see so few... nevertheless we did see some big specimens. I would estimate a total of 10 lionfish over 26 dives, three of them over 15" in length, most averaging 6-8", and one or two less than 4".
You can see an abundance of black caps, fairy basslets and gobies thriving in the reef structure, which are in my opinion indicator species that vanish when uncontrolled lionfish populations are left to thrive.
The one thing that cought our attention was the behavior displayed by several critters, specifically a hand full of larger groupers, a couple of nurse sharks and a Caribbean Reef shark we encountered on more than one occasion last week. These acted like they had been fed Lionfish.
I'm an avid Lionfish hunter and have noticed in areas where divers feed critters, behavior changes take place shortly thereafter.
The most notable thing that I can share was this odd persistent nurseshark that kept moving just following us while taking macro shots. I ignored it as much as possible, but it was essentially just pestering. That of course is not normal behavior.
It's not good to feed wildlife.
From talking with a couple of guides in separate conversations, it appears that the environmental managers go out on Wednesdays to collect lionfish, they keep some for research and give away some for public consumption.
Also heard about an experimental monitoring program where they essentially tag and release a Lionfish to get an idea of its whereabouts. That's something new and interesting.
In any case, hope you can find out and obtain Lionfish harvesting approval before visiting.
Cheers,
Ricardo
I tried to find out before visiting and just have the license ready, but could not get the information nor procedures clear before visiting.
At this time, the Cayman park and/or environmental managers are doing a really good job harvesting lionfish in Little Cayman. I was surprised to see so few... nevertheless we did see some big specimens. I would estimate a total of 10 lionfish over 26 dives, three of them over 15" in length, most averaging 6-8", and one or two less than 4".
You can see an abundance of black caps, fairy basslets and gobies thriving in the reef structure, which are in my opinion indicator species that vanish when uncontrolled lionfish populations are left to thrive.
The one thing that cought our attention was the behavior displayed by several critters, specifically a hand full of larger groupers, a couple of nurse sharks and a Caribbean Reef shark we encountered on more than one occasion last week. These acted like they had been fed Lionfish.
I'm an avid Lionfish hunter and have noticed in areas where divers feed critters, behavior changes take place shortly thereafter.
The most notable thing that I can share was this odd persistent nurseshark that kept moving just following us while taking macro shots. I ignored it as much as possible, but it was essentially just pestering. That of course is not normal behavior.
It's not good to feed wildlife.
From talking with a couple of guides in separate conversations, it appears that the environmental managers go out on Wednesdays to collect lionfish, they keep some for research and give away some for public consumption.
Also heard about an experimental monitoring program where they essentially tag and release a Lionfish to get an idea of its whereabouts. That's something new and interesting.
In any case, hope you can find out and obtain Lionfish harvesting approval before visiting.
Cheers,
Ricardo
howswedeofme
Contributor
Ricardo V., if the nurse shark had a wonkey lip, he's a well-known friendly guy who I first saw when he was just a little bugger (maybe 3 feet?) in 2012. People called him a number of names, but I've mostly heard Amigo and Fin. He has quite the portfolio of videos on YouTube. I don't know if people started feeding him way back then and he already loved divers for that reason (I haven't seen anyone feed him on the dives I've been on or in the videos) but he came right up to my buddy's camera lens and bumped it with his nose and then laid there in the sand in front of my buddy for a while. He also swam around with our group during our guided dive. He was my first shark as a diver so I stayed pretty far away, but he helped me not be illogically terrified of sharks. Now I just have a healthy aversion out of respect for their teeth. There is a similarly friendly/pesky, but not quite as friendly, nurse shark around Saba named Gorbachev and since there isn't any lionfish hunting there, I don't think he's being fed by the divers. I do, however, agree, that divers shouldn't be feeding the wildlife.
AggieDiver
Contributor
Ricardo,
If you were being followed by Grouper on Little Cayman, that started way before there were any lionfish or culling in the Caymans. I remember being introduced to "Charlie" the friendly grouper on Marilyn's Cut back in 1995. He liked to be petted and would follow the first person to pet him for the rest of the dive unless they introduced him to somebody else and then ran away.
I do know that for a fairly brief period of time, the cullers on LC were feeding the lionfish they killed to the Groupers and Sharks to try to teach them to eat them. But that has since stopped because the law changed to require them to bring any fish they cull back to shore in a collection container because the authorities were worried that sharks in particular were starting to associate divers with food. I don't think anybody from any of the dive ops is currently feeding the grouper or sharks on LC, but that doesn't mean the critters don't still remember the good old days of free lionfish...
Ricardo V.
Contributor
AggieDiver, Howswedeofme,
Thank you for chiming in and sharing your thoughts. I hope that these friendly critters in Little Cayman keep doing their thing. It's good for divers to see friendly wildlife as it promotes diving in a unique way and divers learn to respect and appreciate the beauty of the underwater world.
We enjoyed our dive vacation in Little Cayman and must commend the local authorities or team(s) tasked with lionfish control for doing a great job. It's very evident that they are taking this very seriously.
My wife and I have been hunting lionfish several years now and do it just about every weekend. When we start culling in waters where wildlife is used to being fed, they tend to display certain behaviors including aggressive maneuvers that can become unsafe very quickly.
I hope and trust that local authorities are clear of this, and discourage wildlife feeding since it essentially creates unsafe conditions for divers and wildlife.
We hunt Lionfish in waters where sharks, eels and Goliath groupers abound and more often than not, have absolutely no problems filling up a zookeeper and just going about our business.
On the flip side, when we get dropped off at a reef where wildlife is likely being fed, the behavior is completely different. Just spearing a small Lionfish, just a tiny 3" little fish is like ringing a dinner bell. At one time I thought the sound of the rubber tubing was having this effect, but later have changed this hypothesis to blood in the water. They have a keen sense of smell or taste that sure enough, if there is blood in the water... it game on.
We have to stop hunting, float the zookeeper tube and let things calm down because sharks simply go crazy. We've seen green eels free swimming way above the sea floor just chasing whichever diver is hulling a zookeeper. This is not normal.
I'm not wanting to scare anyone, I know we all love this sport and many of us are very passionate about diving. It's good for divers to cull Lionfish too. It's the "feeding wildlife" part where I believe we should discourage.
It was nice taking photos of willing groupers interacting in a friendly way with divers. That's really cool.
Cheers,
Ricardo
Thank you for chiming in and sharing your thoughts. I hope that these friendly critters in Little Cayman keep doing their thing. It's good for divers to see friendly wildlife as it promotes diving in a unique way and divers learn to respect and appreciate the beauty of the underwater world.
We enjoyed our dive vacation in Little Cayman and must commend the local authorities or team(s) tasked with lionfish control for doing a great job. It's very evident that they are taking this very seriously.
My wife and I have been hunting lionfish several years now and do it just about every weekend. When we start culling in waters where wildlife is used to being fed, they tend to display certain behaviors including aggressive maneuvers that can become unsafe very quickly.
I hope and trust that local authorities are clear of this, and discourage wildlife feeding since it essentially creates unsafe conditions for divers and wildlife.
We hunt Lionfish in waters where sharks, eels and Goliath groupers abound and more often than not, have absolutely no problems filling up a zookeeper and just going about our business.
On the flip side, when we get dropped off at a reef where wildlife is likely being fed, the behavior is completely different. Just spearing a small Lionfish, just a tiny 3" little fish is like ringing a dinner bell. At one time I thought the sound of the rubber tubing was having this effect, but later have changed this hypothesis to blood in the water. They have a keen sense of smell or taste that sure enough, if there is blood in the water... it game on.
We have to stop hunting, float the zookeeper tube and let things calm down because sharks simply go crazy. We've seen green eels free swimming way above the sea floor just chasing whichever diver is hulling a zookeeper. This is not normal.
I'm not wanting to scare anyone, I know we all love this sport and many of us are very passionate about diving. It's good for divers to cull Lionfish too. It's the "feeding wildlife" part where I believe we should discourage.
It was nice taking photos of willing groupers interacting in a friendly way with divers. That's really cool.
Cheers,
Ricardo
howswedeofme
Contributor
I also just realized that I was talking about GC, not CB. Whoops! Either way, I agree that the behavior changes. I've heard some pretty scary stories about aggressive eels who get used to being fed. I'd like to avoid being on the receiving end of a hangry eel or shark.
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