Winning lionfish battle #2

[ggunn]

I didn't mean anything negative or "insipid" towards the DMs. I just don't think it's that effective in the long term and we shouldn't breath a sigh of relief that we are "winning the battle".

Beat me to it.

I never said that you guys shouldn't be killing lionfish; go ahead, knock yourselves out. It's entirely conceivable that divers killing them is having a reducing (though temporary) effect in their numbers in the areas where divers go, although only a small percentage of the reef system is even accessible to divers. I do, however, take issue with those who claim that the "war" on lionfish is being won by skewering a few of them and feeding the carcasses to other fish. You are eliminating them by the tens while they are reproducing by the thousands (or millions - who knows?). They don't even know that there's a war on.

 

[Chugwhump]

Please just keep killing them, and then just drop them.
I clip the venomous fins and shred them a bit.
I have had a couple of Morays approach me as I follow other divers down the reef looking for a handout.
I think the handfeeding, speartip feeding, and whatnot is a very bad idea for obvious reasons.
I have fed them to lobster only by hand.
Everything else, I just drop them in a hole or leave them laying in place.

Chug
Does not like seeing the bears in Jellystone Park fed either.

 

[cvchief]

Does not like seeing the bears in Jellystone Park fed either.

Not even one little pic-a-nic basket, boo-boo?

 

[greyghost]

not true. Most fish lay their eggs, guard, and then "watch" over them till they are able to survive on their own. Also, if fish can identify that it was a lionfish that was killed and fed to them they MAY learn to hunt them on their own. We'll have to wait and see.

 

[ggunn]

not true. Most fish lay their eggs, guard, and then "watch" over them till they are able to survive on their own. Also, if fish can identify that it was a lionfish that was killed and fed to them they MAY learn to hunt them on their own. We'll have to wait and see.

You may have to wait a very long time in terms of a human lifetime. Nature will indeed eventually find a balance, but it won't likely be quick and I don't think it will be much affected by divers feeding a few lionfish to groupers.

 

[BTravlin]

Went on my first lionfish hunt yesterday afternoon/evening to a no name reef up north. The area was shallow and seemed to be almost a lionfish nursery. Small to medium size fish everywhere. Controlling them through hunting is not going to work because they are prolific breeders. That being said, I will say I've seen very few inside the park at recreational depths, other than at Maracaibo, so the hunting does seem to be effective within a relatively small area that is heavily visited. Saw many, many more inside the park just 2-3 years ago.

And now that I have first hand experience I can also say I think the ban on divers hunting inside the park is a good idea as there's way too much potential for damage to the reef if every yahoo under the sun were firing slings at the lions. DM's hunting is fine but others, not so much.

I just hope we can all continue to visit for many years to come and still see the large numbers and variety of reef critters we see today.

 

[Prop Joe]

How about a speciality course. DM s should teach it though. No online stuff. There is more to it than just killing the dreaded fish. I would think DM s would respect the reefs as it is their livelyhood.

 

[Brules]

I Still maintain that teaching HUMANS to eat Lionfish is the solution. If you want to make something extinct, get humans involved lol.

 

[b-dog]

At this point I think that hunting lionfish will not do much and may make the problem worse. If the reefs have lots of lionfish then there will be fish that will eat the lionfish. With many lionfish the will be a lot of food for the groupers, snappers, sharks and moray eels to eat and then they produce more babies. There is variation among individual fishes and some may have traits that make them more likely to try new food such as the lionfish and those that eat lionfish will thrive while those that do not may not do as well. This is nature and with a lot of lionfish nature will select for those fish that eat lionfish if there are a lot of them to eat. This is natural selection and it is how nature creates a rebalance when the ecosystem goes out of balance. The same is true of the fish that the lionfish eat, there will be some that are more wary and careful and they will tend to survive while those that are not will be eaten. This is selective pressure and it will select those fish that recognize the danger of the lionfish. All human intervention will do is delay the balancing of the ecosystem

 

[SailNaked]

Just so I understand,

It is obvious that the fish have learned to eat the lionfish that the DMs kill, and actually follow groups of divers waiting for a handout. but you say it is impossible for them to learn to eat the fish they obviously like alive? or even eat the young when available?

it is also obvious that there are very few lion fish in the park, but you say that it is a waste of time to keep killing them and feeding them to the local fish?

Oh, and you say all these things because you are marine researchers and have proven that fish can not learn or have a few sites you can point us to where the research proved that fish can not learn? and we can all read these sites that prove this?

Just please help me understand your point of view... I am just an ignorant, average diver that observed the obvious benefit of feeding lion fish to the local fish in the hopes that one day they would learn to forage for their own and make the issue go away. since the problem seems to be that the fish do not have any natural predators in the northern hemisphere like they do in the southern. and my simple solution is to teach the same predators here that balance the numbers in the southern oceans what a lionfish tastes like.

Edit: When I said teach their young to eat lionfish, they do this with genetic memory and with imitation, if one fish sees another eating something they go to investigate and may learn themselves to eat the same fish. and for the rest, why do you think the fish go to school...