one of the coolest things we saw this trip!

[robint]

This trip, on day 2, our DM killed a lionfish at Palancar Gardens then swam around looking for someone to feed it to.... and found a big lobster. Yeah, a lobster. I never in my wildest dreams thought a lobster would eat a lionfish. As soon as Nestor offered it to the lobster, it grabbed the medium sized lionfish and started chowing down!!

we all watched in total amazement!!! It was gone in about 10 seconds, luckily Ron got a couple of shots. Check it out.


robin

 

[Brules]

Booo to feeding though......they banned it in the park, but it seems it is back with Lion Fish.

 

[robint]

Booo to feeding though......they banned it in the park, but it seems it is back with Lion Fish.

Banned? Not with lionfish. They are killing the lionfish and teaching the other fish that they taste good. In fact, a few times our DM did not kill the lionfish, only wounded it... then let it go. All the fish rushed in and tore it up! It was gone in a flash. The fish are learning how to hunt and kill the lionfish now in Cozumel. We did not see anywhere near as many this trip as 2 years ago. Last year in Bonaire we saw them everywhere, it is a serious problem there and they are not taking action the way they should. Cozumel has the system that works.... spear the lionfish, then feed them to other fish.


robin

 

[Mossman]

But Brules has a good point: the problem with any human feeding is that it has the potential to disturb the ecosystem. It may be a good thing if lobster develop a taste for lionfish, but not if it means that whatever critters lobster normally eat will no longer have the same level of predation and will thus be allowed to flourish. That critter's flourishing might be to the detriment of whatever critter it feeds on, and so on down the chain. Lionfish disrupted the balance, to be sure. So does runoff of pesticides and fertilizer, cruise ship excement, inadequate sewage treatment, over fishing, and a host of other ills we humans wreak on the reef. However, there are plenty of cases in history where humans, in an attempt to "fix" a problem, went about it the wrong way and ended up making the situation worse. For instance, our zero-tolerance for forest fires has allowed dangerous overgrowth and when fires do occur now, they're catastrophic. We since learned it's better to let some fires run their course to burn off old dead material and keep the forests healthy and safe. It is entirely possible that they're going about it in the wrong way in Cozumel. So far the results do sound more promising than the much weaker eradication attempts in Bonaire, but only time will tell.

 

[DandyDon]

They are killing the lionfish and teaching the other fish to follow the divers around looking for handouts....

 

[Brules]

They are killing the lionfish and teaching the other fish to follow the divers around looking for handouts....

Exactly. You will notice now, JUST AS BEFORE when DM's would dive with food to feed, as soon as you hit the water you will have fish following your group as they know they will get fed. Witnessed it 1st hand last year on multiple dives. Yes killing them is good, but feeding to others teaches nothing except that divers will feed you.

Someone needs to invent a pole with heavy duty scissors at the end.......all you have to do is reach out and snip a fin off the lionfish......wound it enough that they will get eaten themselves without direct feeding by humans.

 

[CajunDiva]

I can see both sides of this issue. What has become glaringly obvious to me is that by feeding the dead or dying lionfish to other critters, divers are conditioning those critters to associate divers with a free meal.

In Roatan on our last two dive trips we had NUMEROUS encounters with free swimming Moray Eels coming to check us out and see if we had any lionfish to feed them. It was obvious they were getting used to having free meals fed to them. While we didn't suffer any attacks as a result, I'm thinking it's just a matter of time before something happens.

I'm not exactly sure what the policy is in Bonaire, but we just visited there for the first time in March and definitely noticed a MUCH lower number of lionfish than we are accustomed to seeing elsewhere. Whatever they are doing seems to be working.

 

[t4e]

Bermuda has good methods of dealing with lionfish

 

[DandyDon]

Bermuda has good methods of dealing with lionfish

I guess we have to ask...

 

[tedgarner]

Bermuda has good methods of dealing with lionfish

What are those good methods?