Killing lionfish, does it work?

[blackvans1234]

I think that divers killing these lionfish will not do much, but help keep the numbers slightly reduced until natural predators evolve to equalize the lionfish themselves.

Nature will figure out a way...

 

[Brian Pasic]

I sure hope we figure something out. Maybe a smaller predator like a parasite will evolve. Evolution tends to work slowly compared to man's impact. The scenario I don't want to see is that their numbers only get reduced when the fish they eat become extinct. That would be a sad day!

The Asian leaping carp invaded the Mississippi and was introduced by man to combat algae problems. The only reason it hasn't invaded the great lakes is a series of barriers the US Army Corp of Engineers designed. If they do invade the Great Lakes they will may take over the largest fresh water reserve in the world.
I hope the US Army Corp of Engineers can work on this problem too, maybe make a special designed trap that is activated by their spikes??

Hoping for the best!

 

[Brian Pasic]

And what would happen if they invaded the american pacific, thats another huge fear of mine!

 

[Doc]

Does it make an impact on total lionfish numbers? It has down here in the Keys. Large areas remain virtually lionfish free.

Stop hunting them for 2 weeks and see what happens.

....my students and I cruised the entirety of Molasses Reef. We saw schools of yellow tail snapper, turtles, eels, staghorn, a nurse shark, queen conch and so many different species that I could type all day and still remember another one.

.... Its simply GREAT for the Diving Industry.

• Giving people an underwater mission is always a great idea.

How about teaching them to find and identify all of those: "schools of yellow tail snapper, turtles, eels, staghorn, a nurse shark, queen conch and so many different species"

I really do get what you're saying here, Pete, but it just seems like another thing for students to do now that we aren't teaching them to stare at their SPG's clenched in a death grip. The DM's are distracted by the hunt and so on.

At some point the Lionfih will reach a population stasis and the sport of diving will have changed forever. Gone are the people who got bored "just diving" and became Naturalists.

Maybe y'all in Florida can then quit sinking wrecks? Or will that be for those who have bad aim or no patience for hunting... .. at least there will always be the diversion of learning Tech Diving.

 

[Guba]

Not meaning to hijack the thread, but to Brian...

It would also be a great help (to preventing the spread of the Asian carp into the Great Lakes) if we would stop the artificial reversal of the Chicago River flow. (It is supposed to flow north into the Great Lakes, but we use a system of locks to force it to "flow" south...into the Mississippi River watershed.) If we keep opening those locks, it's inevitable that some carp will get through. It may be inevitable despite all our best efforts, but there's no use in opening the doors for them! Of course, it'll be a HUGE uphill battle to get the people of Chicago to agree to this because all their pollution will be aimed right at their drinking water inflow conduits (just within Lake Michigan). There has already been one major lawsuit settled that allows the reversal to continue. Whether this new threat would change the decision is highly debatable.

Okay, back to the lionfish thread. Sorry for the deviation.

 

[The Chairman]

Stop hunting them for 2 weeks and see what happens.

That decision is above my pay grade. That being said, as an omnivore I don't have a problem with hunting. I spear regularly and find that Lionfish sashimi is wonderful.

How about teaching them to find and identify all of those: "schools of yellow tail snapper, turtles, eels, staghorn, a nurse shark, queen conch and so many different species"

You mean like I already did? I see you're trying to make a point here, but you've lost it in your attempt to be snarky. Man manages his natural resources based on current scientific understanding. Quite often, science is just plain wrong and our understanding shifts. While that may very well be the case here, I don't want to vilify people who are trying to help their environment out by eliminating a perceived threat. Its incredibly easy to judge or even misjudge a person's motivations and I would hate to see that happen here. Until such time that environmentalists come out in unison and decry the lionfish massacre, you're going to see people actively trying to impact this threat.

I really do get what you're saying here, Pete, but it just seems like another thing for students to do now that we aren't teaching them to stare at their SPG's clenched in a death grip. The DM's are distracted by the hunt and so on.

Diving is about having fun and doing no harm. As long as people engage in such a way as to be able to sustain our impact, I see no big problems. In this case, I see it positively impacting the scuba industry and that's a good thing in my estimation.

 

[Hank49]

Until such time that environmentalists come out in unison and decry the lionfish massacre, you're going to see people actively trying to impact this threat. Diving is about having fun and doing no harm. As long as people engage in such a way as to be able to sustain our impact, I see no big problems. In this case, I see it positively impacting the scuba industry and that's a good thing in my estimation.

What do you think of FredT (I think that's his name) and his take on the invasion in the Bahamas? He seems to think they're benefitting the reef health.

 

[Guba]

The man to whom I you are referring is Fred Riger, on Grand Bahama island. His take is that lionfish have helped in his specific area in curbing some algae/reef fish interactions that were adversely affecting the reef systems there. He does not maintain that lionfish are unilaterally beneficial, but he told me that he does support additional study of their presence and their total effects on the reefs.

 

[The Chairman]

What do you think of FredT

He makes an awesome heavy backplate. I know since I own one!

 

[Hank49]

The man to whom I you are referring is Fred Riger, on Grand Bahama island. His take is that lionfish have helped in his specific area in curbing some algae/reef fish interactions that were adversely affecting the reef systems there. He does not maintain that lionfish are unilaterally beneficial, but he told me that he does support additional study of their presence and their total effects on the reefs.

Thanks for the correction. I found his videos very interesting. We've had lionfish here on the sites I dive for over 3 years now. I rarely get below 80 feet free diving but I don't see them over running the place and there are very few scuba divers in most places I dive, except for one. I see some really big ones but not many small ones.