Lionfish - what dive shops will let you hunt?

[MMM]

The DM should have just said "you can't have that in the water with you", but of course rules only apply to OTHER people and that probably would have jeopardized his tip.

Or maybe jeopardized his job if management had told the diver they would be allowed to hunt.

 

[Christi]

I know this is going to come back to haunt me but I feel I should address it anyway since I'm willing to believe it's partially directed towards myself and other frequent visitors to the island who hunt lionfish. As I have stated before, I'm not here to get into a moral/legality argument regarding the hunting of lionfish and I'm not the SCUBA police.

I am not "buddies" with any of the dive shop owners; I am friends with several dive shop employees/DMs and dive with several different operators on the island however It's no secret to anyone reading my past threads who I primarily dive with.

I do NOT feed lionfish to Morays or Nurse Sharks. I don't believe in this practice; In the past I turned a blind eye to it but I'm also concerned about how 'overly friendly' and aggressive the nurse sharks have gotten. I take lionfish primarily for consumption. Those I don't take I leave scattered on the reef, cut up or inside an anemone.

Having said that, I have witnessed it, video taped people doing it, and have been forced to give up my catch to an aggressive nurse shark and the people that I know that have fed them past NO LONGER do it. I can only speak for myself and other people I know personally. It's certainly not a new problem, at least I have witnessed it and video taped people doing it since 2010..

I have witnessed multiple dive operators doing it which whom have been trained by the park and should know the regulations. Certainly there are DMs doing it for extra tips and clients doing it for 'excitement' or whatever you want to call it but let's not pretend it's certain people with specific dive shops; It's unfortunately a wide spread problem.

Nope Mike - had nothing to do with you - sorry - you didn't even cross my mind on this topic - I know that you (and of course Aldora) are a responsible diver and hunter

 

[cnherrick]

LOL:
The Lionfish Cookbook: Tricia Ferguson and Lad Akins, David M. Stone: 9780615428925: Amazon.com: Books

Eat them. Without mercy.