Lionfish Awareness and Elimination

[ZenDiver.3D]

Then why are they causing problems in the Atlantic?

Because the natural predators here, grouper(hammour), scorpionfish, and such, are used to lionfish. They recognize them as prey.
In their new environment over there, the fish who would prey upon them don't recognize them as prey and don't hunt or eat them.

And I think String is lamenting yet another paid specialty course by PADI that is simply cashing in. I agree. If people are really interested in educating others and helping to reduce the population, they will teach all, not just the enrolled for a specialty card..... That is already happening, as far as I can see.

 

[Kern]

Then why are they causing problems in the Atlantic?

Because the natural predators here, grouper(hammour), scorpionfish, and such, are used to lionfish. They recognize them as prey.
In their new environment over there, the fish who would prey upon them don't recognize them as prey and don't hunt or eat them.

And I think String is lamenting yet another paid specialty course by PADI that is simply cashing in. I agree. If people are really interested in educating others and helping to reduce the population, they will teach all, not just the enrolled for a specialty card..... That is already happening, as far as I can see.

Also, in the Lionfishs natural habitat, prey species recognise them as predators, & have developed survival strategies.

 

[ZenDiver.3D]

Also, in their natural habitat, prey species recognise them as predators, & have developed survival strategies.

Yep. I watch it all the time.

And we have very few lionfish here. In mid May, we will see groups of 5 or so of varied sizes, but that is gone by July and then only a couple here and there.

 

[annieols]

Because the natural predators here, grouper(hammour), scorpionfish, and such, are used to lionfish. They recognize them as prey.
In their new environment over there, the fish who would prey upon them don't recognize them as prey and don't hunt or eat them.

And I think String is lamenting yet another paid specialty course by PADI that is simply cashing in. I agree. If people are really interested in educating others and helping to reduce the population, they will teach all, not just the enrolled for a specialty card..... That is already happening, as far as I can see.

It is not about cashing in for another course. On bonaire, the visiting divers want to get involved in collecting and culling lionfish, unfortunately they are not allowed to spear; only trained volunteer divers are. This is an opportunity for those divers to assist on some of the action- there was a huge demand to go out with our staff on these dives. also, we are running the course both as a PADI and as a non-PADI course; and the majority of customers WANT to get the certification, even though it costs a little more.

The reason we are offering it as a PADI course is because I wanted to create an amazing course so that we have the opportunity to really educate people, and I am a PADI instructor; who else should i have had as the certifying agency?- personally i dont have time to sit down with my customers one on one just to chat about lionfish education (though i wish i did), in this course there is a knowledge presentation right at the begining to explain about lionfish, their invasion into Caribbean and Atlantic waters, and to teach about various elimination techniques (marking, collecting and spearing). then we go out and put those lessons into action.

I am sad that this amazing opportunity and personal accomplishment has turned into a PADI bash by some members

 

[LakeCountyDiver]

It is not about cashing in for another course. On bonaire, the visiting divers want to get involved in collecting and culling lionfish, unfortunately they are not allowed to spear; only trained volunteer divers are. This is an opportunity for those divers to assist on some of the action- there was a huge demand to go out with our staff on these dives. also, we are running the course both as a PADI and as a non-PADI course; and the majority of customers WANT to get the certification, even though it costs a little more.

The reason we are offering it as a PADI course is because I wanted to create an amazing course so that we have the opportunity to really educate people, and I am a PADI instructor; who else should i have had as the certifying agency?- personally i dont have time to sit down with my customers one on one just to chat about lionfish education (though i wish i did), in this course there is a knowledge presentation right at the begining to explain about lionfish, their invasion into Caribbean and Atlantic waters, and to teach about various elimination techniques (marking, collecting and spearing). then we go out and put those lessons into action.

I am sad that this amazing opportunity and personal accomplishment has turned into a PADI bash by some members

I think it would be a cool course. I sure dont think it should be no $200 specialty but teaching divers that these fish dont belong here and how to catch them is great. When I got into diving I did not know about the lionfish problem. Now when I see them if I can catch them with out hurting the reef they die.:devil3::devil3::devil3:

 

[BoltSnap]

annieols,

Keep doing what you are doing. It is great!! Don't let the negativity of a few affect you.

 

[String]

Anyone that thinks they can make any difference to the numbers by catching or selling a course is deluded.

 

[cbm32]

It would seem to me that the goal would be to educate and put in the water as many people as possible to help with the problem. Charging for the course certainly wouldnt be conducive to educating as many divers as possible.

Now a FREE course would be a great idea and show that instructors/dive shops are truly worried about the problem by being willing to give their time to try to do something about it.

Just my 2 cents

 

[danvolker]

Anyone that thinks they can make any difference to the numbers by catching or selling a course is deluded.

String,
Clearly you are not familiar with what has happened in Florida over the last 10 years, where significant profits from commercial spearfishing of Hogsnapper DECIMATED the hogsnapper populations thorughout South Florida. With restaurants selling a small filet of hogsnapper for $25 or more, the commercial guys became very active, and in only a few years, a VERY SMALL NUMBER OF COMMERCIAL SPEARFISHERMAN caused major changes to the populations of these fish. Around 1998, you could go out on the 120 foot deep Playground off of the Palm Beach Inlet, and around dusk see 15 to 30 hogs on a typical dive..sometimes more. Many of these were big--over 12 to 20 pounders. Today, If you are lucky, you "might" see one. If you saw one, it would be small.

We have restaurants in Palm Beach ready to start preparing and serving Lionfish..we just have to get them the fish. If the restuarant patrons like the Lionfish, that will be the end of the Lionfish problem here. With the number of divers interested in killing or shooting and selling lionfish that we have now, this could change the population in months....But we do need the restaurants involved.

 

[Searcaigh]

I was never aware that lionfish were a problem in the Carribean, who introduced them to this area if they are not a natural species?