Bahamas liveaboards and the effect of lionfish

[Blackbeard's]

We have a permit from fisheries to collect lionfish for research along with Stuart Coves. Fisheries has been asked to allow spearing of lionfish on scuba by dive operators, but I'm not sure if they have authorized it. I was told they had, but I haven't seen anything from them.

Bruce

 

[leadweight]

Who said it was legal to spearfish lionfish in The Bahamas? The government has not issued a public statement nor has it informed the dive shops in Grand Bahama of this.

Perhaps I misunderstood one of the crew on my trip. If it is not yet authorized, it needs to be. Obviously, this poses a problem because if one species may be hunted on scuba, its harder to enforce a ban on spearfishing on scuba.

Consider the Caymen islands where the possession of any spear is a crime.

There is an article in this month's Alert Diver. Traps are being used in deeper water to snag lionfish. It is now believed that there is no possibility of eliminating them from the Atlantic and Caribbean, and their density is many times what it is in their native waters. At best, divers could remove them from critical marine parks.

Lionfish are eating the small fish that the larger fish feed on, so it could be goodbye for grouper and snapper.

 

[Blackbeard's]

One of our dive sites, the Lost Blue Hole, was the location of the 1st lionfish in the Bahamas. Between August, 2005 and January 2006 the number of lionfish there went from none to 30 and the small fish & cruatacean population disappeared completely. The site had always had large schools of snapper & grunts, but after the small fish disappeared many of the snapper and grunts moved on. We have even seen many of the lionfish leave. Fortunately for us that is one of only a couple sites that have many lionfish.