100days-a-year
Contributor
they are making their way onto restaurant menus,@5$ per pound one could make a few bucks if one had a polespear and a collection bag...I average about a pound per fish BTW
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Fun is never considered a failure and catching them is just that. This has the possibility of creating an avenue to promote diving and spear fishing. I like that!d our attempt to control their numbers with spears, nets, slurp guns, and other tools seems doomed to failure..
Unfortunately, I think you are correct. Where the divers are, the LF populations are in check. I dived an area not known for divers. LF all over the place.I hate to be a wet blanket, but while I laud the new legislation, I believe that this is an instance of closing the corral long after the horses have fled.
The local Lionfish population is now well established, (in many areas, it is intractably entrenched,) and when you consider the breeding habits of Pterois volitans, the outlook is not at all optimistic as regards regulating, let alone eliminating the invaders. ..... Couple this robust and voluminous capacity to reproduce with a virtually non-existent population of natural predators, and our attempt to control their numbers with spears, nets, slurp guns, and other tools seems doomed to failure. I wish that I had another assessment or plan to offer, but am unable to provide one.
And that's why divers should keep hunting them, or start hunting them, because we are establishing safe areas for the native populations to continue surviving. The choice is not 'Eliminate all lionfish' or do nothing, our choice is 'reduce the lionfish population where our juveniles live on the shallow reefs we dive' or do nothing.Unfortunately, I think you are correct. Where the divers are, the LF populations are in check. I dived an area not known for divers. LF all over the place.
Scuba Jenny, you are so right. Dive here in Key Largo on one of the SPA areas and most likely you will not see one. Dive a 200 foot wreck and you will see dozens of the biggest suckers you have ever seen in the US.Unfortunately, I think you are correct. Where the divers are, the LF populations are in check. I dived an area not known for divers. LF all over the place.