Are we as divers, doing enough to curb the issue of lionfish in the atlantic?

[100days-a-year]

Looks like my NE FL GA SC and NC fish may get more valuable..not much chance of ciguatoxins here.

 

[billt4sf]

I hate to break it to you guys....but:

US Food and Drug Administration Echoes Previous Nature Foundation Recommendation on Lionfish Carrying Ciguatera Fish Poisoning.

I have also dined on the very tasty Lionfish...but will not do so again. So much for killin' and grillin'.

Thanks for posting this.

- Bill

 

[HJeffreyM]

I'm no marine biologist, but imo we should kill as many of the lion fish as possible and then leave them in situ (where you found them) in the hope that something down there (grouper and sharks mostly) get a taste for them. Encouraging natural predators would seem a good idea to me because they, unlike us, can visit depths where lion fish are plentiful without concern for breathing gas, DCS, or deco obligations.

 

[tomfcrist]

I'm no marine biologist, but imo we should kill as many of the lion fish as possible and then leave them in situ (where you found them) in the hope that something down there (grouper and sharks mostly) get a taste for them. Encouraging natural predators would seem a good idea to me because they, unlike us, can visit depths where lion fish are plentiful without concern for breathing gas, DCS, or deco obligations.

Doesn't work well in NC. Sand tiger sharks aren't dumb, and quickly associate spearos as dinner providers. Quite dangerous actually.

 

[Akimbo]

Whatever artificial intervention humans come up will skew Mother Nature's solution, which is the only one that will work on this scale. Unintended consequences often do more harm than the "quick fix" was intended to resolve.

 

[chillyinCanada]

Still think we should do what we can as far as spearing and removing those lionfish we can reach. If nothing else, it may help the little reef fishies to do better, live longer, in our more dived areas.

It is also my understanding that in their natural environment, lionfish are susceptible to some natural predation, for example the coronetfish. What I can't recall is if the coronetfish was eating the juveniles, enjoying their eggs, or just what. Assuming this is correct understanding as to the natural predation, may we hope that Caribbean trumpet and coronetfish develop a taste for them.

 

[PK1]

Hope others won't mind my entering this thread mid-way. Colliam7 is correct in noting that lionfish densities in depths below 150ft are quite high, and are not easily reached by divers. There has been some limited removal done using spears attached to mechnical arms on submersibles, but this technique can't make much of a dent in the populations. However, culling by divers at lower depths SHOULD be encouraged. Recently published studies from The Dutch Caribbean and Mexico show that lionfish population densities at sites where culling is done regularly are significantly lower than at neighboring sites where there is no culling being done. There is similar evdience (although anecdotal) from Belize.

As others have noted, what is important is to be sure that those involved in culling are properly trained; both for saftey reasons and to avoid coral damage.

A couple of posts have noted efforts to establish a commercial fishery for lionfish. I am in full agreement with this. However, for a commercially sustainable solution, the economic return to fishers for harvesting lionfish needs to be increased sufficiently to offset the higher cost of harvesting them (need to use spears or hand nets) as compared to other seafood species. One approach, in which I'm personally involved, is promotion of use of lionfish spines and tails in jewlery and other decorative items. Its already happening in Belize. Information here: Citizen Science in Belize ? Update ? If You Can?t Beat?em, Wear?em |

Promotion of lionfish as a food item also has run into a hiccup as a result of the ciguatera warning issued by the FDA this past May. There has yet to be a confirmed case of CFP from lionfish, and some research suggests that the neurotoxin in lionfish may cause a false positive for ciguatera. Nevertheless, the warning is causing some concern. Again, all the more reason to find other commercial uses for the fish.

Another action that is being looked at is capture and sales of juvenile lionfish from the Atlantic for the aquarium trade. Believe it or not, there are still 40,000 lionfish per year being imported to the US from the IndoPacific for sale to hobbyists. These folks are the cause of the invasion (the story that the source of the Atlantic invasion goes back to a pair of pet lionfish that were washed out to sea during hurricane Andrew has been pretty much de-bunked; the real cause was intentional releases by hobbyists), and could be made part of the solution is a ban were to be placed on import of live lionfish from anywhere except the Atlantic.

In any event, the Atalantic lionfish invasion is most definitely something that the dive community should be concerned with. It has been cited by scientists as one of the top 10 threats to global biodiversity, and more recently as "the biggest threat that the caribbean has ever faced". I don't want to go into a long litany on the damage that lionfish are causing. I'll just give one statistic; lionfish have been shown to reduce native fish populations on a reef by up to 90% in as little as 5 weeks. My own observations (from stomach content examination in Belize) found that a big portion of their diet was composed of parrot fish and other herbivores that are vital to checking growth of harmful algae.

Sorry for the long post. Bottom line is that action is needed, and divers do have a role to play.

 

[TMHeimer]

There's not much you can do, really. Lionfish are prodigiously reproductive ... something like a half-million eggs per adult per year. They have no natural predators on this side of the planet. In their natural environment, they aren't kept in check by predators eating lionfish ... they're kept in check by predators eating lionfish eggs. Until nature adapts and finds a balance ... which it will, eventually ... everything we can do as divers amounts to less than a drop in a swimming pool ... because we can't even get to about 99.99999% of the habitat where these creatures are reproducing.

... Bob (Grateful Diver)

Right. I'm not going to read anymore posts here, as I think anything divers do individually is like a needle in a haystack. You'd have to do something chemically and that would screw up everything else. Like diver "clean ups" which is nice visually, while agricultural run off and coastal development ruins the reef anyway.

 

[Mike]

I'm curious as i've only ever dived st Lucia in this part in the world. this was my first diving trip abroad and was the reason i did my padi open water, but i didn't understand the lionfish issue and to be honest don't recall seeing many lionfish. but i ask, as i see there are events such as the derby to catch lionfish etc. should every dive require (not by law but as good practice) you to remove a lionfish if seen? i would liken it to my philosophy of removing plastic bags from the sea on a dive. could it or in fact, should it become just one of things that you don't even think about doing, it's just done?

i'm not saying all divers should as it may lead to accidents with people who are relatively new to diving. But as soon as you are capable, should you?

I think it would be a great idea if that was the case, however the problem of lion fish is all over the east coast of the US and all through the Caribbean, and unfortunately most countries have put up legal road blocks to killing lion fish in their countries some out right banning it from anyone but an 'official' (Cozumel in any of the marine park dive sites which are 95% of the dive sites) to others making it very difficult to do it if you wanted to through making it illegal unless you're specifically paying for training they require before hand (Roatan) and the road blocks go on and on... I was just in St. Croix and I saw dumb ass old posters from 5 years ago where they were still asking divers to report a lionfish that they see on a dive site... , as if they are still in the very early detection phase that other countries went through 5 years ago.