To kill or not to kill lionfish in the Caribbean and Florida?

[hammet]

Had an instabuddy one day who was hunting LFs and enjoyed carving up the fish and feeding them to the sharks and morays. I was not amused. Otherwise, I'm all for hunting them, especially for food.

That being said, I figure eventually the sharks and and groupers will take a liking to these guys and learn to hunt them without getting stabbed.

To quote jeff goldblum... Nature finds a way.

 

[tursiops]

I recently saw a presentation by...um..his name escapes me...and so does the name of the island where he's located...I blame the cold I'm recovering from. But he did a really good talk about teaching sharks to hunt lionfish. "

There is a pretty good argument going on about whether predators can be taught to eat Lionfish. The counter evidence to your statememt "The results were good in that the adult lionfish were pretty well cleared off the reef tops and driven into the crevices below, and biodiversity rebounded; the juvenile fish that the lionfish had been devouring reappeared once the predators themselves faced shark predation." is that you get the same results even without shark predation, you just need to cull the lionfish from the shallower waters, as for example in Bonaire. the point was not shark predation, it was removal of the lionfish. The current research seems to indicate that Yes, you can feed a wounded/dead lionfish to a shark or a large grouper, but that is not the same as teaching them to hunt the lionfish by themselves. In fact, it also has negative consequences; from one publication: "Lad Akins of the Reef Environmental Education Foundation, a Florida-headquartered organization of divers and marine enthusiasts, said he believes feeding lionfish to native predators in the Cayman Islands or anywhere else is dangerous. “A number of people have been bitten, sometimes badly, by conditioned predators. The dive industry, regulatory agencies and resource managers have come out against the unsafe and unproven practice of feeding lionfish to predators,” Akins said."

 

[gopbroek]

I am on a flight back from Cozumel. We actively hunt them there and they are becoming very hard to find. I have noticed a very big change in the number of small fry on the reef.
In the sheltered areas and holes when a lion fish is present there will often be no other small fish around since the lion fish will have already consumed everything nearby. It is one of the tell tales I look for when hunting. On the dives I did this weekend in Cozumel in just about every likely spot I would find nothing but clouds of small fish, but no Pez Leon, a good thing.
I think that in other areas where lionfish populations are still heavy and divers are present you will find the main impedimate to reducing the population is enforced local restrictions on hunting.
I think that in many cases where there are restrictions the reason is the local authorities are still trying to come up with a model to monitize a revenue stream off the tourists as opposed to just trying to get rid of the pests.

 

[arew+4]

Headed to Roatan in June, my boys and I will be taking the lionfish hunting course from the marine park. I'm hoping they are preaching the sniper mentality "one shot one kill" the goal being not to educate the fish, or damage the reef

 

[SeaHorse81]

I'm all for eradicating lionfish, but very concerned at the changes in reef shark behavior that I've noticed where lionfish hunting is encouraged, even without encouraging the sharks to eat the bodies. Previously benign sharks ("I'll do my thing, you do yours.") have become aggressive bullies, which isn't good for anyone.

 

[Dizzi Lizzi]

Having had lionfish ceviche in Bonaire I say yes to removing them because they taste so good. As to scuba divers doing it, well lets just say neither you or the reef would appreciate me with a spear gun. However absolutely yes to accurate and trained hunters.

 

[northernone]

I've heard no good argument against culling an invasive species.

The nearest to it for me is: "Let the planet sort itself out. It's fine, we're SOL"

Cameron

 

[Littlerayray]

I am all for killing and eradicating invasive species ie lion fish, Asian carp (even though it's funny to watch videos of people getting hit while going for a boat ride) and goby fish. Here in the st Lawrence you can't dive without gloves as zebra muscles cover everything and will tear your hands to ribbons. But the gobys I cut their heads off Asian carp will eventually be making their way up here. I've seen one or 2 alligator gar both were killed by the fishermen

 

[Jayfarmlaw]

In 5 years or so, I have seen the LF population in Cozumel go from seeing lots of them on everydive, every reef, and available at our favorite restaurants....to seeing one or two in a week of diving and loads of juvenile fish(especially small trunk and cowfish...my favorites)

On a trip to Roatan last year, LF were everywhere. Other than Lionfish and moray eels, other aquatic life was limited.

Other than not being able to get coconut crusted LF, Garlic Grilled LF, and LF Ceviche sometimes, the reduction in the population is a good thing. Now, if someone could farm them like tilapia....that would be perfect!

Jay

 

[MAKO Spearguns]

The concern about habituating predators to being fed by divers and the potential for a modification of their normal behavior is a significant issue. However, there is pretty much unanimous opinion that their removal from foreign ecosystems is to be encouraged. Florida has a number of incentives and promotional programs directed toward their removal.

Lionfish have excellent meat, so many people are interested in keeping them for their own use. If lionfish are speared and placed in a container and not fed to the sharks, normally any sharks present will not become too interested.

If they do become too aggressive, then one potential solution is to send the lionfish container to the surface with a marker buoy. This will only work where you have a boat crew who is able and willing to retrieve the container and the floating marker. Separating yourself from the source of any blood and visual stimulus usually causes the predators to hunt elsewhere pretty quickly.

After the dive, if you don't want to eat the lionfish, they can be disposed of somewhere away from the dive site so that predators are not able to associate food with divers.

If you really don't want to keep the lionfish for food and you don't want to carry a container, then it is often possible to spear the fish and then quickly slide the fish off and place it under a ledge without being too conspicuous. For example, barbless, multi-prong tips are available that are quite effective on lionfish, but will also allow the dead fish to be quickly stripped off the spear tip with minimal effort. This may help to reduce the opportunity for predators to make the connection between diver and food.

Obviously if a predator is already following you and looking over your shoulder, it might be time to give the fish a pass.

Spearfishing has always increased the potential for predators becoming interested in the catch, but compared to many other types of fish, lionfish aren't generally going to be a problem in most areas because they normally are not struggling and releasing a considerable amount of blood.

Also with respect to concern for impacts to the reef, if the diver uses a small pole spear or other device intended for lionfish removal, they are designed to have limited power - so they should be very easy to control. In addition, as with any kind of hunting/shooting activity, the hunter must carefully identify the target and be aware of what is behind the target. With lionfish, it doesn't take a whole lot of effort to carefully line up your shot, so that a shot that penetrates (or even misses) will not harm the reef.

A diver who has good control of their buoyancy and position in the water, should be able to learn to safely harvest lionfish pretty quickly since the necessary gear is not cumbersome.