My Lionfish Fantasy

[RTBDiver]

So I stepped off my steps for another dive, Left the camera in the house. Within a few minutes met my first lionfish, A big one, probably 18 inches, Wooo hooo, spear that one, Within about twenty minutes I come across at least half a dozen more very edible size and I think of spearing them as well, BUT, This is all FANTASY Because the Roatan Marine Park has decided I CANNOT kill these fish unless I spend time in West End and buy a special spear from them.
Could have taken out about a hundred a week but its not legal for me to do so acording to the RMP

 

[Doc]

Does the Roatan Marine Park have anything specific to say about prohibiting grenades?

prolly not

 

[billmosel]

RMP should check out what Bonaire is doing. They seem to have a pretty good hold on how to handle the lion fish population (at least they are trying). It sounds like RMP just wants to make $$$ off the lion fish problem and not worried about the problems it will bring to the marvelous reef in Roatan. Unfortunately it might be to late for roatan.

 

[Reef Tank]

RMP should check out what Bonaire is doing. They seem to have a pretty good hold on how to handle the lion fish population (at least they are trying). It sounds like RMP just wants to make $$$ off the lion fish problem and not worried about the problems it will bring to the marvelous reef in Roatan. Unfortunately it might be to late for roatan.

Last week in Curacao we ate the lion fish that we hunted. The are great under truffle sauce.

 

[RickyF]

It's just another way for them to extract more dollars from the dive community. They breed so quickly that it is impossible to erradicate them, but it is possible to keep the numbers down. It's a shame they can only see another way to get money.

 

[RTBDiver]

Does the Roatan Marine Park have anything specific to say about prohibiting grenades?

prolly not

Grenades may be fine as long as your not using Deet at the same time,

 

[rob@diveinutila.com]

This is how I understand the situation... and it's not about tourist dollars. If I am wrong I would be happy to hear the correct version!

Very sensibly all spear fishing for any species is banned under congressional law in Honduras. Spear fishing tends to be very selective and takes the biggest strongest healthiest members of a population and as such can be incredibly destructive.

To be able to legally spear even lion fish the NGOs that have got involved like Roatan Marine Park, Utila Center for Marine Ecology and Bay Islands Conservation Association had to petition central government HQ to make a special exemption in the law for spearing lion fish.

This has been granted on condition that spears are limited in design to what is needed to spear a lion fish and are licensed and have the license ID number engraved on them. Owners of the licensed spear are photographed and identification details are taken. The owners are responsible for the spears not ending up in the hands of disreputable spear fisherman, etc. Each spear can be tracked back to someone who purchased the license.

Personally, I much prefer controlled use of spears than a spear free for all which is probably (sooner or later) going to result in other species being taken and also a large amount of coral damage from clumsy/unskillful use of spears. Yes it is possible to take more lion fish. Will that actually make a big difference? That's up for debate...

 

[Colo Hippie]

We had 2 spears shared by 4 divers on our boat and we killed 81 Lionfish in 6 day's. If the RMP does not make it easier for divers to hunt the Lionfish they are going to kill their dive industry. It was really cool to watch the DM feed them to the Moray's after we speared the Lionfish.

And I second that Lionfish is tasty.

 

[Mike]

This is how I understand the situation... and it's not about tourist dollars. If I am wrong I would be happy to hear the correct version!

Very sensibly all spear fishing for any species is banned under congressional law in Honduras. Spear fishing tends to be very selective and takes the biggest strongest healthiest members of a population and as such can be incredibly destructive.

To be able to legally spear even lion fish the NGOs that have got involved like Roatan Marine Park, Utila Center for Marine Ecology and Bay Islands Conservation Association had to petition central government HQ to make a special exemption in the law for spearing lion fish.

This has been granted on condition that spears are limited in design to what is needed to spear a lion fish and are licensed and have the license ID number engraved on them. Owners of the licensed spear are photographed and identification details are taken. The owners are responsible for the spears not ending up in the hands of disreputable spear fisherman, etc. Each spear can be tracked back to someone who purchased the license.

Personally, I much prefer controlled use of spears than a spear free for all which is probably (sooner or later) going to result in other species being taken and also a large amount of coral damage from clumsy/unskillful use of spears. Yes it is possible to take more lion fish. Will that actually make a big difference? That's up for debate...

If Roatan is requiring the use of the ELF they have their heads up their butts.

Seems like it would be exponentially simpler to promote a mindset in the dive industry on Roatan to protect the very reefs that allow them to make a living as dive masters by killing lion fish on their dives. It takes very little skill and almost no time at all to kill a lion fish and drop the body and move on. Within 30 days the dive sites would be practically devoid of lionfish.