Finally the Roatan Marine Park gets a clue

[ronski101]

the first time i saw a lion fish other than my roomates aquarium was 10 years ago on a trip to fiji. We were diving this huge 60 ft x 20 ft high coral head with all these great little crevases for fish to hide in. Strangely, there were very few fish living on this coral head but we did find two big fat beautiful lion fish on patrol hunting as a team. It wasn't until several years later when we learned more about the lion fish that we realized just why there were so few fish in an environment where it should be teeming with them.

 

[castaways01]

Twelve Lionfish under my dock and boat ate all the tropicals and every other small fish that swam by. Even with high wind and poor visibility, Lionfish slayer Larry Coon (Spectacular Diving | Unspoiled Reef | Seldom Visited Sites | Comfortable Boat | Home East End Divers of Roatan) came out this weekend and got 5 of them. Lionfish lurking near a dock ladder or swimming area is dangerous. I've seen the effects of a Lionfish sting. Wouldn't wish that on anyone, especially a kid. All it takes is accidently brushing up against their fin spines.

 

[Roatan Marine Park]

The Roatan Marine Park has been documenting the spread of the lionfish since May 2009 when the first specimen was officially found in Punta Gorda. Other than the random specimen stated seen 5 years ago, this was the first official specimen. Since then, we have been documenting events in our monthly newsletters of how we have dealt with the problem starting that july http://www.roatanmarinepark.com/newsletters/2009/05-July.pdf

The lionfish eradication program started some months later as we needed permission from the Honduran Fisheries department, DIGEPESCA, to hunt them. We needed permission from DIGEPESCA to distributing licenses and have received many compliments on our pro-active approach on the situation.
http://www.roatanmarinepark.com/research/lionfish-program/

Since then we have developed a program and have been working with dive shops around the island to promote awareness. We recently produced a video and radio adverts in spanish and english to teach islanders about the fish and how to prepare it for cooking.
http://www.facebook.com/home.php#!/video/video.php?v=10150301852365596

To say that we have been twidling our thumbs once again is a totally naive and we ask that by reading the newsletters you learn more about the RMP lionfish program.
http://www.roatanmarinepark.com/newsletters/2010/10-October.pdf

The lionfish are here to stay and there is really nothing that we can do to stop their spread. You could kill ever single one around Roatan within the recreational diving limits and their spaces will be filled from the guys in the deep in days. Being pro-active, raising awareness and providing a demand for the meat is the only solution.

 

[Mike]

The lionfish are here to stay and there is really nothing that we can do to stop their spread. You could kill ever single one around Roatan within the recreational diving limits and their spaces will be filled from the guys in the deep in days. Being pro-active, raising awareness and providing a demand for the meat is the only solution.

Well, that's a weird statement. First you say there is no solution (by the way I'm in total agreement with that, I've been saying that for years and years to people in all the islands as we dive in places just discovering the problem and trying to find solutions - they exist beyond recreational limits so you can't eradicate them),
then you say there is a solution by creating a demand for their meat.

Please clear up my obvious error in thinking here, but how does creating a demand for their meat do much of anything?

What is the minimum size a harvester of these things is going to look at as big enough to eat? Any lion fish that has gotten big enough to be desireable to someone to eat it has obviously already done a sh*t load of eating to get to that size.

The 'solution' is to wack the little bastards when they are small, to wack everyone you find by DM's who have a vested interest in protecting the fish habitat from them. You do this by not issuing licenses,, but by giving DMers full permission to spear them, crush them, kill them on site. This ensures that they are culled out of the prime dive areas at a young age before they eat enough fish and do their damage to get to a size where they are big enough to be looked upon as harvestable by a fisherman.

I hope that makes sense, if not please show us the error in the thinking.

In short if you are relying on a meat market for lion fish to play an important role in controlling them, you've already allowed them to get too big in the process and do their damage already. You've got to cull them while they are small, not rely on a method that will only remove the ones who have already decimated an area.

 

[CODMAN]

Fin, The way I understood what the Roatan park was saying is the solution is "learning to live with them" by creating a use for the species as a food item. I didn't interpret it as a solution to get rid of the species... But that's just how I interpreted it; the park can explain for themselves what they meant...

I agree with you when you say the big ones have already eaten much fish. But spearing each one you see isn't going to help much I'm affraid.

On a single guided dive by a DM, what percentage of the total lionfish on that reef section do you think the DM will see? It's most probably less than 1%... Then how many of those can he spear on that dive? Once again, probably very low, maybe less than 50% of that 1%(I'm just throwing numbers here for discussion)??? So we are even lower... Say 10 DMs pass on that reef each day? That's still a very small number of the total being hunted... And here is the worst part! Hunting success is density dependant! The more you hunt, the fewer there are, the harder it gets to spear them!!!! Success drops and you are left with a nice stable population that can easily maintain itself or even explode back up if the fishing pressure is reduced (DMs get sick of doing this). To to recap, Lots of effort... for low results yield... That are just temporary... Believe me, I wish it wasn't so... But it is...

They're here, so lets make the most of it. It eating them could take the fishing pressure off of Groupers and such, it would at least have a minimal benefit to the area!

Well, that's a weird statement. First you say there is no solution (by the way I'm in total agreement with that, I've been saying that for years and years to people in all the islands as we dive in places just discovering the problem and trying to find solutions - they exist beyond recreational limits so you can't eradicate them),
then you say there is a solution by creating a demand for their meat.

Please clear up my obvious error in thinking here, but how does creating a demand for their meat do much of anything?

What is the minimum size a harvester of these things is going to look at as big enough to eat? Any lion fish that has gotten big enough to be desireable to someone to eat it has obviously already done a sh*t load of eating to get to that size.

The 'solution' is to wack the little bastards when they are small, to wack everyone you find by DM's who have a vested interest in protecting the fish habitat from them. You do this by not issuing licenses,, but by giving DMers full permission to spear them, crush them, kill them on site. This ensures that they are culled out of the prime dive areas at a young age before they eat enough fish and do their damage to get to a size where they are big enough to be looked upon as harvestable by a fisherman.

I hope that makes sense, if not please show us the error in the thinking.

In short if you are relying on a meat market for lion fish to play an important role in controlling them, you've already allowed them to get too big in the process and do their damage already. You've got to cull them while they are small, not rely on a method that will only remove the ones who have already decimated an area.

 

[RTBDiver]

On a single guided dive by a DM, what percentage of the total lionfish on that reef section do you think the DM will see? It's most probably less than 1%... Then how many of those can he spear on that dive? Once again, probably very low, maybe less than 50% of that 1%(I'm just throwing numbers here for discussion)??? So we are even lower... Say 10 DMs pass on that reef each day? That's still a very small number of the total being hunted... And here is the worst part! Hunting success is density dependant! The more you hunt, the fewer there are, the harder it gets to spear them!!!! Success drops and you are left with a nice stable population that can easily maintain itself or even explode back up if the fishing pressure is reduced (DMs get sick of doing this). To to recap, Lots of effort... for low results yield... :

And this post reinforces one of the main problems in that it is basically only the DM.s and shop employees that can hunt them. Open it up so the locals can go after them and things change. Will they be eliminated? Of course not but face it, if you look at the food sources on and around the island sch as deer, conch, iguana and turtles that have suffered over the years then there is little doubt there would be an impact.

 

[Roatan Marine Park]

Firstly, as soon as the first lionfish was officially reported in May 2009, not years and years ago as some have suggested, the RMP began working on an aggressive plan of attack. Our first step was to work with the fisheries department to legalize the distribution of spears to certain individuals. While we were waiting for the legalization to happen, divers were told to mark the location of the lionfish so we could return later to catch them with a net. This was the best option of removing the lionfish until the spears were legalized.

We cannot give a spear to anyone that walks into our office, whether they are from the United States, Honduras, or elsewhere. The spears are distributed to people that fit criteria set by the DIGEPESCA, mainly that they be a PADI Divemaster or Instructor. We have also distributed a few spears to individuals that are not PADI professionals but live in places where no one dives. Many islanders that work as diving professionals have purchased spears and use them on every dive.

Most islanders are afraid of the “demon fish” and do not want to risk any interaction. The next step in our Lionfish program is to visit the local communities and educate them about lionfish. In a perfect world, we could distribute spears to every person on the island and they would go out and only spear lionfish. This is not a perfect world however, and we do not want to further endanger Roatan’s reef inhabitants in our efforts to eradicate lionfish. To address your worries RTBDiver, “ I can imagine the guy with a bag on the bottom full of lobster getting caught with a spear and showing a little lionfish to the ranger man and all is OK..”, rest assured, if anyone is found with conch, lobster, or a speared fish other than lionfish, they will be promptly arrested. Unfortunately, everyone cannot be trusted to spear only lionfish. This is why we issue licenses to spear lionfish, and lionfish, only to trust worthy individuals that fit the criteria.

To clarify our previous statement, there is unfortunately no solution to completely remove the Lionfish. The best solution to control the populations is to create a commercial demand for them on dinner plates. It is only now becoming economically viable for people to hunt lionfish commercially, once the Honduran government make it legal to sell Lionfish meat. Look at any species that is popular on dinner plates and you will see the effect that this has on their population. We are not saying that small lionfish should be left on the reef until reach suitable eating size, we are stating that there are now enough big ones around to make it a viable source of income. Most spear-licensed instructors and Divemasters will shoot any lionfish they encounter, regardless of size.

Some people have also suggested just letting nature take its course. The lionfish are not a natural part of the Meso-American reef system. The only reason they are here is because of man’s interference with the natural world. This being said, most populations reach a carrying capacity which when surpassed, the population is usually plagued by disease and famine. This happened here on Roatan not long ago with the short nosed puffer. With lionfish however, by the time the population surpasses its carrying capacity, the irrevocable damage will already be done to local fish populations, as a single lionfish is estimated to reduce the population of small fish on coral reefs by 80% in just five weeks.

If you have routinely dived in Roatan throughout past year, you would see the population growth and realize it is impossible to eradicate the lionfish. As we stated before, even if we removed every lionfish found within recreational dive limits, the population would still be replenished by individuals moving up from the deep (lionfish have been documented at over 1000 feet down), or from larvae drifting from Belize and other countries. A single lionfish can produce tens of thousands of eggs up to 7 times a year. With numbers like that, it will never be possible for us to kill them all. On a personal note, on my last 3 dives to Hole in the Wall, Black Rock, and Butcher’s Bank, respectively, me and my dive buddy have seen close to 200 lionfish and killed 112. These are dive sites visited every day but numerous divers. A large majority were fed to the Mutton Snappers that now stalk divers with lionfish spears. Unfortunately, the snapper will currently not dare eat the lionfish unless they are maimed or dead.

 

[AggieManda]

We just returned from diving in Roatan last week and were astounded by the numbers of lionfish that we saw. They were everywhere. At some dive sites we saw whole colonies of 7-12 fish per spot. The DM did carry a spear, and speared several, but the dive shop also has to think about how it looks to their customers on a dive who are not familiar with the issue. Once the issue is explained to divers, most do not object but witnessing the spearing can be a little "shocking" at first to someone who has never seen it done or who is not a fisherman or hunter.
It seemed to us that the Roatan Institute for Marine Sciences were doing their best to eductate the public about consumption, to put spears in the hands of qualified people, and to research the problem to come up with calculated solutions. We plan on going back in the next year, and it will be very interesting to see the progress of these efforts...

 

[RTBDiver]

Firstly, as soon as the first lionfish was officially reported in May 2009, not years and years ago as some have suggested, the RMP began working on an aggressive plan of attack.

Not sure about "officially" reported but a member of this board reported seeing lionfish in Roatan at least as far back as 2006 on one of the roatan tourist yahoo groups yet at the time were told by various authorities that there were no lionfish and it was likely something else.

 

[castaways01]

Firstly, as soon as the first lionfish was officially reported in May 2009, not years and years ago as some have suggested, the RMP began working on an aggressive plan of attack.

Sorry but you are wrong. I saw a Lionfish near Neverstain bight on April 11, 2006 and reported to the marine park that day. I also posted the sighting on the Roatan Yahoo group. This was a few years before Subway found one on the northside near Punta Gorda. Here is the posting.

FROM ROATAN YAHOO GROUP, APRIL 14 2006
"Snorkeling through a sand area near Neverstain Bight Tuesday I thought
I saw a "lionfish". I followed it for a long way and the pectoral fin
fanned out big (almost the length of the fish) and the coloring was
like a lionfish. I know they aren't suppose to be in these waters,
but has anyone seen a species of it here? If it's not one, what could
it be? It's not in any of the Caribbean reef fish books I have.
Thanks,
Marcia"