"The Wetter The Better" save lionfish from death

[dumpsterDiver]

It's SOP that divers on charters aren't supposed to kill anything, unless it's a lobster or spear trip. Neither the DM, Capt or Dive Op have anything to 'explain' to anyone.

Does Bill know you are argueing for him? Seriously.... Does he even know about this?


Bill runs an excellent operation and is probably the most experienced and professional dive operator that I have deal with in over 20 years in that specific area. I would hate to see his business drug through the mud because of a misunderstanding or actions taken by one of his employees that he might not even be aware of.

 

[ONESPEED]

Lionfish must go by any means available.

I think some "out of state" posters dont realize that the problem is just getting started here, so there is hope to curtail its growth.

Exactly, I think part of the reason they have become so prevalent off of the Carolinas and the Bahamas is that they were initially treated as a novelty, the alarms did not go off until they began proliferating and now they are so abundant in those areas it's probably too late to effectively control them. Here in SE Florida we are only beginning to see specimens appear so we have the advantage of at least attempting to control the population before they become as widespread as elsewhere.

 

[svs]

Exactly, I think part of the reason they have become so prevalent off of the Carolinas and the Bahamas is that they were initially treated as a novelty, the alarms did not go off until they began proliferating and now they are so abundant in those areas it's probably too late to effectively control them. Here in SE Florida we are only beginning to see specimens appear so we have the advantage of at least attempting to control the population before they become as widespread as elsewhere.

I personally think that this assumption is pretty naive, but only time will tell. Though I don't have any warm feeling for lionfish I am afraid that with population growing my future dive trips to Florida will resemble Simpson's snake whacking day.

 

[ONESPEED]

I personally think that this assumption is pretty naive, but only time will tell. Though I don't have any warm feeling for lionfish I am afraid that with population growing my future dive trips to Florida will resemble Simpson's snake whacking day.

The suggestion that we passively sit back and let them take over our reefs is considerably more naive. Nothing ventured, nothing gained.

 

[svs]

I think general reef protection will have better chance to succeed. In this particular situation by not eating other reef fish (by one of the most prominent invasive species Homo sapience) such as large predators like groupers and snappers. More native fish on the reef more chances that something will eventually develop taste for lionfish (eggs, juveniles or adults). I saw video of Goliath grouper eating lb+ spiny lobsters like roaches, so there are potentials out there.

 

[ONESPEED]

I think general reef protection will have better chance to succeed. In this particular situation by not eating other reef fish (by one of the most prominent invasive species Homo sapience) such as large predators like groupers and snappers. More native fish on the reef more chances that something will eventually develop taste for lionfish (eggs, juveniles or adults). I saw video of Goliath grouper eating lb+ spiny lobsters like roaches, so there are potentials out there.

Hmmm, so we stop hunting, fishing and eating fish in general in order to control the lionfish population? Well that's just brilliant. Tell you what, you enjoy your tofu and I'll continue encouraging everyone I can to pop these critters.

 

[netmage]

Exactly, I think part of the reason they have become so prevalent off of the Carolinas and the Bahamas is that they were initially treated as a novelty, the alarms did not go off until they began proliferating and now they are so abundant in those areas it's probably too late to effectively control them. Here in SE Florida we are only beginning to see specimens appear so we have the advantage of at least attempting to control the population before they become as widespread as elsewhere.

I personally think that this assumption is pretty naive, but only time will tell. Though I don't have any warm feeling for lionfish I am afraid that with population growing my future dive trips to Florida will resemble Simpson's snake whacking day.

Personally, I've not seen one in Florida waters yet... makes me wonder just how many are actually out there...

The suggestion that we passively sit back and let them take over our reefs is considerably more naive. Nothing ventured, nothing gained.

Goliaths might have made a dent, anecdotally we've lot quite a number of them in the last year, oddly enough, shortly after some FRA-type yahoo's started rumbling how Goliaths had recovered...

 

[Scott L]

THEY HAVE TO GO - THEY NEED TO BE KILLED/REMOVED THEY WILL DO DAMAGE AND THEY DON'T BELONG HERE

There is no debate on the above statements

(Likely not their fault - its ours, mans - but sadly they need to suffer for our mistakes)

Guess you know where I stand, but however:

Unless you had a rock behind the lionfish to "pin" it no way are you going to just stab it with an knife - think about it

Wetter the Better is an excellent charter operator

Be careful doing the "Mike Nelson" tango on lionfish a la your dive knife - as much damage as they can do to fish populations, its not worth a sting.

I concur that the Wetter the Better is an excellent operator and the dive master is an extremely nice guy. There is a chance that the DM may not be up to speed on the issue. I would cut them a break unless you can determine they actually advocate the spread of the species. I beleive he was probally simply discouraging knife play in his presence. That said, what is the best way to terminate them? I am yearning to buy yet another scuba toy...

 

[Scott L]

A bit off subject but I caught the Monsterquest episode of gigantic killer fish a few days ago which dwelled on goliath groupers. They had some insane photos of a 1,500 lb catch. A reseracher stated they have counted over 300 on several dives in Florida. May be old news on this forum but I viewed it for the first time and thought it was very interesting especially considering much of the video was shoot in Jupiter where I do most my diving....

 

[ONESPEED]

I concur that the Wetter the Better is an excellent operator and the dive master is an extremely nice guy. There is a chance that the DM may not be up to speed on the issue. I would cut them a break unless you can determine they actually advocate the spread of the species. I beleive he was probally simply discouraging knife play in his presence...

My understanding is that this incident involved their female DM, just to clarify.