King's Beach Lionfish dive report. 10/22

[ThatsSomeBadHatHarry]

RIOceanographer, Tampico_ED, and I went to King's Beach in Newport to day for spectacular 25 ft vis and 59-57 degree water. Chris and Ed were warm and smart in their drysuits. I was cold and desperate in my wetsuit. We were down there for about and hour and 20 minutes and we saw lots of critters. including a pretty big lionfish that we were all very exited about.

 

[REII]

She is a beauty. Sounds like you had a nice dive, except for the cold water. I think I need a hot shower after reading your post.

TOM

 

[ThatsSomeBadHatHarry]

here's another shot.

 

[Tampico_ED]

Hi,

Here is my share. It was just so great coming back to the cold weather...I lost my mind by going to dive in CA ...gi do not know what I was thinking NE is the best !!!

By the way thanks Dave for sharing the fish. It came just in time as I lost any hope to find one this yeat....yupi !!!

Great vis....my first time at King's beach!

 

[oceancurrent]

Amazing pictures! Thank you for sharing.

 

[crosing]

Wow, those lion fish can live anywhere it seems. I saw a ton of them down in the Bahamas recently.

Do they have any natural predators?

 

[ThatsSomeBadHatHarry]

Wow, those lion fish can live anywhere it seems. I saw a ton of them down in the Bahamas recently.

Do they have any natural predators?

not in new england. not sure of anywhere else.

Ed! glad you posted thos pics. excellent!

 

[johnnyseko]

Nice!! I drove right by that site yesterday thinking I should stop and see if anyone was diving...guess I should have. I wound up at cliffwalk to scope out that side while giving Missdirected a quick tour of Newport. Anyone know where the entry is over there? Is that lands end? Anyway, from the top of the '40 steps' the water looked soooo clear! We were both wishing we had our gear and of course that it was warmer...lol

 

[crosing]

This is really weird, I got the latest issue of DAN's Alert Diver today, Nov Dec 2006 issue and there is a sidebar article on page 25 of someone capturing a juvenile Lionfish in 6-8 feet of water off Fort Wetherill!

Does anyone know if it is true that they are proliferating due to be dumped by aquarium owners?

Hard to imagine that they can adapt to the chilly NE waters as they are native to the Indo-Pacific reefs.

 

[Mike W]

There was a lionfish caught there a month or so during a tropical fish hunt with the New England Aquarium Club. This was the first " Documented " red lionfish in New England. I've read of others and seen pictures but this one was reported to the proper authorities and confirmed as the most northern migration yet of this species. Because they are tropicals, they won't survive the water temperature change that's happening now, but if anyone sees one, they should report the location to verify it. There's lots of theories as to how they're here. One of them are someone with a home aquarium releasing them into the wild. They have no known enemies in these waters and will eat anything so they grow and reproduce at will. Things like this can ruin a whole echosystem in no time. I believe there will be a larger article next month in Alert Diver. There is a video piece on NECN about Chris andhis uncle Charlie Benoit from NEADC who caught the lionfish at Wetherill and it is now living at a marine science center in Maine.