Cozumel Lionfish Hunting

Please register or login

Welcome to ScubaBoard, the world's largest scuba diving community. Registration is not required to read the forums, but we encourage you to join. Joining has its benefits and enables you to participate in the discussions.

Benefits of registering include

  • Ability to post and comment on topics and discussions.
  • A Free photo gallery to share your dive photos with the world.
  • You can make this box go away

Joining is quick and easy. Log in or Register now!

BLee88

Contributor
Messages
72
Reaction score
38
Location
Northern California
Hi everyone - the better half and I are planning a trip somewhere for early March 2023 and we’re in the process of considering Cozumel.

I’m hoping to post a question here as it seems there’s a lot of Cozumel locals and dive op affiliates active on SB.

I reached out to Aldora divers, who advertises Lionfish trips, and was informed that they run them with the requisite 4 divers.

Do any of the other ops run Lionfish hunting trips? Also, are divers allowed to hunt during the normal 2-tank trips in the marine park out south?

We were scheduled to do a Lionfish class at the Roatan Marine Park and some post-class conservation activities last June but it got scratched as the RMP was closed, of all things, for office renovation. Really hoping to get this in during our next trip.

Also, any insights on Lionfish hunting in Cozumel would be much appreciated.

Thanks in advance!
 
You might try Arpon in Puerto Aventuras, which is pretty close. I don’t know if they do specific lionfish hunts, but I has a great experience with them and found them very flexible and accommodating.
 
Salty Endeavors does it by private charter only as we need to head north to do so.

No hunting in the Marine Park unless park certified (aka no tourists). And pretty much 99.9% of dives in Cozumel are in the Marine Park unless otherwise agreed upon ahead of time. So no, you won't be able to hunt on a normal 2-tank excursion.

I'd imagine any shop would do this for you, provided they agreed to head north. Getting north, of course, is the tricky part.

It's also deep. Restaurants buy lionfish from local dive staff, so within recreational dive depths the numbers are kept to a minimum. You'll need to extend below 30 meters and up to 40 meters to get into "the numbers" to make it worthwhile. But then of course thats a short NDL dive. And I would recommend no 32% use on northern walls due to risk of strong downcurrents.
 
FWIW, I saw a few lionfish in Puerto Aventuras at freediving depth (maybe 30 feet), as well as a ton of other spearable fish. We got 2 barracuda ("we" meaning the guide, who was a much better hunter than me). Do you have your heart set on just lionfish, or are you open to other species?

The owners of Arpon also have a charming seaside restaurant, where they'll cook the fish for you.

I have no relationship with the company other than being a one time happy customer.
 
Here for last 3 weeks. Yes Aldora requires 4 divers. They also have 7 boats and most of them are full. Getting a hunt boat is relatively easy since they have that many divers clients to pull from. It may not go everyday, but goes a few times a week (at least). Just tell them your interested when you get here. If diving with them they also use whatsapp to communicate while you are down here. I whatsapp them the day before if I am not diving, or I want a certain divemaster or dive site (Devils throat, Maracaibo...) or chill dive or whatever.
 
Back in October, We went North with Aldora and got quite a few around Barracuda 30M+ depth. We had a full 6Pak.
 
The lions aren't seen much in Cozumel

I do belive the lions have adapted to being hunted and have gone to deeper waters
 
I do belive the lions have adapted to being hunted and have gone to deeper waters

Good for the reef, not so much for hunting :) Makes sense though that they're getting wiped out in the rec depths.

Nassau was really full of lionfish back in 2019. So much that there were always some hanging out inside the multiple artificial reef/wrecks on the southern side of the island. IIRC, those wrecks were around 60'

Roatan in just last June also had a good number at 60' - 80' depths. Though I couldn't get the roatan marine park training and my own spear due to the their office being closed, the DM trainee that tagged along most of our dives always had a spear... and I got relegated to spotter duty (and I was damn good at spotting them) while the DM trainee went for the kills. I think he got at least one each dive.

I've actually contacted multiple Coz ops and, like some people here said, seems like you need to be a "member of the marine park" to carry/use a spear. Some ops said that they do hold hunting trips in the southern marine park sites but I'm guessing that it's "on the down low" activity.

Still struggling with deciding on the op to go with in March and yes, lionfish hunting is still a big consideration for dive op choice :)
 
https://www.shearwater.com/products/swift/

Back
Top Bottom