Lionfish Awareness and Elimination

[ThomasScherrer]

if I could sell a freshly killed lionfish to the local resturant for some $
maybe that could encurage the killing ?

 

[danvolker]

if I could sell a freshly killed lionfish to the local resturant for some $
maybe that could encurage the killing ?

You just need to find someone with a commercial fishing license, who can sell to seafood markets...and then push your local restaurants to have a standing order with the markets....as things go, this is pretty easy for us to accomplish. This wiped out the hogsnappers, and it would certainly fix the current problem on many reefs with the lionfish....if they ever got to be as desirable as higsnappers, the commerical spearfisherman would go to all the reefs, as well as deep reefs, in search of them..Sadly, it's all about the "money".

But we can use this

 

[Muisit]

I just hate it when they get stuck on the spear! You know that's when a big Grouper will come around the corner, ha ha.

 

[prxtreme]

Hi can you send me information
Joel Melendez
PADI 168526
info@prxtreme.com
thanks

 

[Guba]

They're heeeeeere!

The following is an update from Kelley Drinnen, Educational Specialist for the Flower Garden Banks National Marine Sanctuary:

"The lionfish invasion has now reached Flower Garden Banks National Marine Sanctuary. We expected the arrival of this invasive species this summer, and here they are. Recreational divers on board the M/V FLING reported one at West Flower Garden Bank the week of July 20, and then another at Stetson Bank on July 27. Thanks to the crew and passengers of the M/V FLING for reporting these."

If I am not mistaken, this is the farthest west the lionfish have been reported in the Gulf of Mexico so far.

 

[Hatul]

Mention killing and all the roaches come out.

Adam

 

[Fred R.]

I made a part two of my video series (in progress)

‪Lionfish Imact, Part II, They are not so evil after all‬‏ - YouTube

(for those that didn't see part one; ‪Fredgbscuba's Channel‬‏ - YouTube )

Dan, the Bahamas has outlawed all commercial shark fishing and put sport fishing for sharks on a catch and release basis, so we can have a 240,000 square mile experiment right next to Florida's east coast.

Hog fish may be breeding in the deep water, and wiped out of the shallower water, but as long as there is a breeding population, they will keep trying to colonize the shallower water. That has been our experience in the Bahamas.

I will probably make a video of this, but you don't have to protect all groupers to have a healthy population. You only have to protect the largest of each species. These are the successful breeders and as long as there are big ones, they will keep making small ones. Odds of survival from egg to fully mature and breeding grouper is something on the order of 400,000 to one, so you really don't have to worry about 'infant mortality', it is part of their game plan.

 

[Guba]

Hey, Fred Remember in May when I said I thought it would be about mid-July when the first lionfish would be spotted on the Flower Gardens in the Gulf of Mexico? I think I nailed it. They're here.

Bill

 

[danvolker]

I made a part two of my video series (in progress)

‪Lionfish Imact, Part II, They are not so evil after all‬‏ - YouTube

(for those that didn't see part one; ‪Fredgbscuba's Channel‬‏ - YouTube )

Dan, the Bahamas has outlawed all commercial shark fishing and put sport fishing for sharks on a catch and release basis, so we can have a 240,000 square mile experiment right next to Florida's east coast.

Hog fish may be breeding in the deep water, and wiped out of the shallower water, but as long as there is a breeding population, they will keep trying to colonize the shallower water. That has been our experience in the Bahamas.

I will probably make a video of this, but you don't have to protect all groupers to have a healthy population. You only have to protect the largest of each species. These are the successful breeders and as long as there are big ones, they will keep making small ones. Odds of survival from egg to fully mature and breeding grouper is something on the order of 400,000 to one, so you really don't have to worry about 'infant mortality', it is part of their game plan.

Hey Fred,
Isn't it wild that the Bahamas is more responible than the US? Given this, they should be better able to maintain the health of their reefs....all we have in Florida right now are Lionfish derbies....Although on the reefs which are favorites for this behavior, Lionfish have become "scarce". We are getting more restaurants to have an interest also....so "commerical power" may be at hand, even if we can't be intelligent enough to end the shark slaughtering....

 

[danvolker]

Hey, Fred Remember in May when I said I thought it would be about mid-July when the first lionfish would be spotted on the Flower Gardens in the Gulf of Mexico? I think I nailed it. They're here.

Bill

Fred,
EXCELLENT VIDEO!!!!!!!!!!!!
I see your point, but I would rather have Florida impose a moratorium on Grouper and Snapper fishing, along with sharks, untill the trophic systems return to a natural state--or at least to a state where "balance" is posible.
You correctly identified a zero balance situation in the Bahamas, that you were able to mitigate, by doing the work of the herbivores no longer present.
In several areas of State Parks in the US, there were problems with deer and a few other species, being overpopulated and then going on to destroy forest, etc....One solution was wolves being re-introduced, to restore the "natural order"...the other was hunters going out and getting their "quotas" of deer....The solutions of re-introducing wolves has always worked better, but the local farmers don't like ths....In our situation, the commerical fisherman will not like the smart solution, of allowing the grouper snapper and shark populations to be protected, until they reach near natural concentrations.

If I thought we could have a grouper and snapper moratorium, I would be all over this as a solution witht he shark killing ban.....but an attempt to stop the fishing would be like pissing into the wind....so Lionfish Derbies, it is ;-(