Lionfish Awareness and Elimination

[jupitermermaid]

A couple of observations I had this week:

I saw a large lion fish swimming by a green moray eel. The eel tried to eat it, but the LF lunged forward and stung the moray. The poor moray contorted and twisted and writhed like I've never witnessed before. I assumed at the time that the LF was too big for the moray to eat in one bite. Noted for future reference.

The other day I speared a nice-sized LF. A spotted moray was close by and kept darting back and forth from my spear (while I was cutting off the spines and cutting the head off). I offered it to the eel, but he didn't take it. I decided to keep it since it was an eating-sized LF. However, when I cut the head off and pushed it to the side, the spotted moray darted out, grabbed it, and pulled it into his hole to gnosh on. Noted. Then I caught a smaller LF. I usually cut their heads off and leave them, hoping something would eventually eat them and find tasty. I decided to leave him on the end of my spear until I either found another one to spear or another eel that might be interested in it. I came across a green moray and offered it to him. He was not in the least interested. I swiped the LF off the spear on a rock and left it to float toward the eel. Again, he approaced it, then recoiled. refusing to eat the LF.

The questions I have regarding these experiences are: Do spotted morays like LF better than green morays? But the one I encountered wasn't interested in the whole thing, just the head after it was cut off. Have morays attempted to eat them previously in the wild, only to get stung, and therefore shy away from them once stung? Or will they onlly eat them if the LF are stripped of the venomous spines beforehand?

There is still so little we know and so much more we need to learn. Hopefully we will find more answers before it's too late for our native reef fish.

 

[Fred R.]

YouTube - ‪Lionfish Impact part 1, they are not so evil after all‬‏

 

[Hank49]

Fred R., Thanks for that link. Makes a lot of sense.

 

[b-dog]

Good video! I hope you make more. People need to let nature take care of restoring the balance. Let natural selection work and those fish that recognize the threat of the lion fish will live to reproduce while those that do not will be eaten. It seems cruel at first but in the long run the fish will adapt to the presence of the lionfish. Man needs to intervene less in the coral reef ecosystem because humans are far more destructive to the coral reef than the lionfish could ever be.

 

[danvolker]

Unfortunately, this misses the biggest point. Man is NOT staying out of the balance by ignoring the lionfish/not killing them.....while this new invasive species is eating everything in sight, MAN is out with commericail fishing nets, long lines, and massive commericial fishing fleets raping their way thoughout the ocean.
If none of the fishing was taking place, then yes, maybe the huge and healthy ecosystem would quickly find a balance....But Man has weakened the ecosystem to the point that our intervention is necessary, to accomplish what Nature would have been doing if we had not already destroyed most of it....

 

[HattDiver]

Black Widow spiders on my land are part of the ecology, too, but I kill every one of them I can. And they're not nearly as destructive as Lionfish.

 

[Hank49]

Unfortunately, this misses the biggest point. Man is NOT staying out of the balance by ignoring the lionfish/not killing them.....while this new invasive species is eating everything in sight, MAN is out with commericail fishing nets, long lines, and massive commericial fishing fleets raping their way thoughout the ocean.
If none of the fishing was taking place, then yes, maybe the huge and healthy ecosystem would quickly find a balance....But Man has weakened the ecosystem to the point that our intervention is necessary, to accomplish what Nature would have been doing if we had not already destroyed most of it....

Dan, can you keep us updated on the effects of the control methods going on in FL? It's going to be very interesting to compare results in 4-6 years between there and Belize, where most of the area on our barrier reef is unmolested breeding territory for lionfish.

 

[danvolker]

Dan, can you keep us updated on the effects of the control methods going on in FL? It's going to be very interesting to compare results in 4-6 years between there and Belize, where most of the area on our barrier reef is unmolested breeding territory for lionfish.

Hank,
I'd like to hear more about what Belize is doing to protect it's "fisheries".
Here, it is unfortunately a bad or sad joke on all of us, that we have Fishery Management, which "appears" to be staffed by people who were either in commercial fishing, or people that would seem to be paid somehow by the commercial seafood industry. They have always allowed the fish stocks to be decimated, only using a moratorium when they quota systems fail so miserably that they are forced to.
Even though Palm Beach has huge biomass when compared to the Keys or Cayman type destinations, I dove Palm Beach in the 70's, and I can tell you, the ocean is an entirely different place today....anyone who dove here in the old days, knows how badly the ecosystem is broken.

 

[b-dog]

Unfortunately, this misses the biggest point. Man is NOT staying out of the balance by ignoring the lionfish/not killing them.....while this new invasive species is eating everything in sight, MAN is out with commericail fishing nets, long lines, and massive commericial fishing fleets raping their way thoughout the ocean.
If none of the fishing was taking place, then yes, maybe the huge and healthy ecosystem would quickly find a balance....But Man has weakened the ecosystem to the point that our intervention is necessary, to accomplish what Nature would have been doing if we had not already destroyed most of it....

I agree but I feel that there will still be balance reached even if people dot hunt lionfish. There is variation among the smaller fishes and the lionfish will eat those fishes that do not recognize them as a threat leaving those that do to breed and have progeny that will be wary of the lionfish. There are fish in the Indian and pacific ocean that are surviving with lionfish living in their oceans so I am positive that the fish in the Caribbean will adapt to evade the lionfish. This is how animals evolve and the reason for variation among animals. The lionfish provides selective pressure on fish to be wary of them and after time a much higher percentage of fishes in the Caribbean will recognize the lionfish as a threat. This is all without man doing anything to affect lionfish numbers.

 

[DazedAndConfuzed]

When the lionfish has eaten up everything there is to eat, they will just die off.

If the only thing you know is how to kill something, then that becomes your solution to everything.