Lionfish in Cozumel

[jawfish]

I have seen Lionfish in Cayman but not Cozumel. Wow. Anyone have a pic?

 

[firstdive2005]

Ya, I hate taking out my dicshunary too but it was worth it. Thanks for the read geokr.

 

[SkipperJohn]

Ya, I hate taking out my dicshunary too but it was worth it. Thanks for the read geokr.

eye two hate dictionaries but miss spelling is some thing I try too avoid
thanks four the reed....


By the way (or should I say "buy the weigh") I found this article very informative.
Lionfish Decimating Tropical Fish Populations, Threatening Coral Reefs

 

[ggunn]

By the way (or should I say "buy the weigh")...

Oar buy thee weigh?

 

[diver 85]

Scuba8: Thanks for posting the story and, if you're still in Coz, please thank Edgar! (I plan to do so personally.) That fish is in a jar, drifting in a sea of formaldehyde. Tried to upload the photo, but received an error message that I don't know how to fix...

This Edgar??

 

[MDVBERG]

Just returned from a trip to Cozumel a week ago, and I found another Lionfish on the start of Punta Tunich. As usual, the current was pretty good on Tunich and I was not able to get the divemaster's attention. Three of us saw the lionfish, and we did get a picture, which was immediately called in to the park service. They showed up almost immediately to look at the picture, and said they'd send a team to try to find it.

I was not the one with the camera, but I'll try to get a copy of the picture to post.

 

[geokr]

Please do post it when you can. Deb mentioned that someone had spotted one so there may be more around when I arrive next weekend. Hope not but that's just hoping and not the way Nature works with these things. Will see if I can convince the DMs to go there as much as possible - these fish bear watching you know!

 

[deborahdelamar]

My husband Francis found a small lionfish (about 4cm) at Tunich shallows yesterday. Via fortunate circumstances & cooperative effort between Aqua Safari divers (us) and the next DM's coming down current (Sand Dollar), the fish was captured and removed from the reef.

Today, Mariano of Aqua Safari captured a lionfish at Tormentos.

There are many around, so please be on the lookout. They hang out in sheltered areas (out of the current) -- on the shallower sites they are usually found near the bases of the reefs.

 

[kkbiker]

We captured a 4" Lionfish on Dalila Thurs 7/9/09. I found it under a rock ledge out of the current. A fellow diver at my hotel told me his DM caught two and killed one on Dalila earlier that same week.

 

[MiguelAngel]

Now heres a good one. The lionfish have invaded the reefs Cozumel, as we all have hear, seen and read. But what happens when the fish are invading a reef where sport and commercial scuba diving is not permitted? In cozumel, with so many ppl diving it monitoring the area is less of a problem. Last week while doing some monitoring for fish grouping in the southern reef of the Sian Ka'an biosfere reserve, 128 km south of Cozumel, a diver brought to me a fish he had found in a lobster trap inside the coastal lagoon in Sian Ka'an. The fish turned out to be , sadly, a very healthy and very live lionfish. Four others were reported to me in the same week, all inside the coastal lagoon, inside the lobster traps in less than 10 feet of water and near the mangroves.
Now the tricky part here is that tank or compressored diving is not permited inside the reserve unless with special permit and for scientific reasons. So the only real gauge to monitor the invasion of the lionfish in this area are the coop fisherman that are free diving for spearfishing and lobster catching. Well that and the monthly monitoring for fish aggregations we been doing.
Interesting problem on this area.