Lionfish Awareness and Elimination

[Guba]

Dan
The concept you are promoting may very well get its best shot by watching places such as the Flower Gardens (sorry I keep coming back to that site, but it's one near and dear to me). Since the FG is a National Marine Sanctuary, it already has protection for ALL species, including snapper and grouper. (Well, they do allow traditional hook and line fishing, but not much is actually done out there.) The populations of those species are pretty healthy on the FG, so if the FG "resists" the invasion and maintains a more stable balance, that would be powerful evidence in favor of establishing more protection for sharks, grouper, snapper, etc in other areas as well. That's one of the reasons the FG will continue to be watched so closely now that lionfish have been reported there.

Bill

 

[Fred R.]

I had another article about damsel fish killing coral;
Distressed damsels stress coral reefs


Bill, I am very interested in what happens out at the Flower Gardens. There was an article posted recently about our own Exuma Land and Sea Marine Park where it was noted that the lionfish were not prevalent inside the park where large groupers were present, but they were found in much larger numbers outside the park where fishing pressure on groupers is extreme. I noted the same thing in our dive sites before the data was skewed by spearfishing of lionfish. The large groupers were 'protected' on our dive sites by legislation that prohibits spearfishing on scuba, and spearing within a mile of our shore, after a mile the depth is too great for most breath-hold spear fishermen.

Dan, the concept I am trying to get across is 'surrogate predators'. Check out my video, Part II again, turn off my narration and look at the algae, and the coral necrosis caused by close contact with the algae. Then look at the reef where the lionfish are, there is almost no algae and no coral necrosis. Until we get people to either voluntarily work towards balancing the reef (stop killing so many groupers, especially the large ones) or get forced into it by legislation, the lionfish are becoming a necessary part of our ecosystem. Creating a demand for lionfish fillet will only continue the decline of the coral on your favorite reefs.

Thanks to all who watched my videos. If you liked them (or the effort to make them) please take a moment to comment on You Tube. It helps.

 

[danvolker]

I had another article about damsel fish killing coral;
Distressed damsels stress coral reefs


Bill, I am very interested in what happens out at the Flower Gardens. There was an article posted recently about our own Exuma Land and Sea Marine Park where it was noted that the lionfish were not prevalent inside the park where large groupers were present, but they were found in much larger numbers outside the park where fishing pressure on groupers is extreme. I noted the same thing in our dive sites before the data was skewed by spearfishing of lionfish. The large groupers were 'protected' on our dive sites by legislation that prohibits spearfishing on scuba, and spearing within a mile of our shore, after a mile the depth is too great for most breath-hold spear fishermen.

Dan, the concept I am trying to get across is 'surrogate predators'. Check out my video, Part II again, turn off my narration and look at the algae, and the coral necrosis caused by close contact with the algae. Then look at the reef where the lionfish are, there is almost no algae and no coral necrosis. Until we get people to either voluntarily work towards balancing the reef (stop killing so many groupers, especially the large ones) or get forced into it by legislation, the lionfish are becoming a necessary part of our ecosystem. Creating a demand for lionfish fillet will only continue the decline of the coral on your favorite reefs.

Thanks to all who watched my videos. If you liked them (or the effort to make them) please take a moment to comment on You Tube. It helps.

Fred, I get that....and I will be discussing this with a bunch of our Palm Beach boat captains over the next week... I am taking your idea seriously....it actually ties in well to the "Trophic downgrading of planet earth" article and theory, very well.

And we do have an algae problem like never before....the wierd thing is, from a coral spawning about 6 years ago, we have 10 times more hard corals now, than we did in the 70's....but we do see the algae where we don't want it.....

 

[b-dog]

I sure would love to see more videos on what the lionfish is doing to help the coral reefs. This is really interesting to me.

 

[Guba]

By the way, Fred, I'll be presenting a series of workshops for the Texas Marine Educators Association at the Conference for the Advancement of Science Teaching in Dallas, Texas, in November. The lionfish invasion and its ramifications will be a part of two of the sessions. Would you mind if I used one or both of your videos (or parts thereof) as part of the presentation material? I definitely want to have as balanced a presentation as possible (hence a great part of the reason I traveled all the way to the Bahamas to dive with you!).

Thanks for all you do,
Bill

 

[DazedAndConfuzed]

I always assumed that when I see alot of sea urchins in every crevice, it implies that it is not a populous reef since the urchins takes up much of the holes that the fish would usually hang out. Thus they don't make the reef their residence and you get mostly passer by's.

 

[Guba]

Generally, if one sees a reef in which sea urchins are way overpopulated, it's not because they are "running off" fish by occupying their crevices and cracks...it's because the population of the organisms that prey upon urchins is shrinking. That usually implies a dynamic change brought about by big shifts in other populations or major environmental factors. For example, a huge explosion of sea urchins along the northwestern coast of the US can be traced to the virtual elimination of sea otters, which kept the urchins' numbers in check. What eliminated the otters? Fur hunters.

Once the otter numbers rebounded, the urchin population once again fell to more normal and stable levels.

 

[scubafanatic]

I'm wondering if anyone has read the most recent Undercurrent article concerning Lionfish ? I won't copy/paste it here due to possible copyright violations, but the article title kinda sums it up: " Curbing the Lionfish Invasion: A Futile Fight "

 

[stcroix]

I am a subscriber to Under Currents, and was Under Whelmed by the article. It was mostly a rehash of what you can read here or in other reports. Wish they would interview some of the scientists, or organizations that are actively working in the water and on the land.

"Futile" is what happens when you do NOTHING. And I suspect even modest suppression efforts will result in a more important result: attention to the problem and its ultimate solution (which I think will include reintroducing predators).

Here on St Croix LF suppression continues to work. I was diving today in an area that sees daily dive boats and almost zero lionfish as a result -thanks to armed DMs and volunteers. Yet I bagged two (and missed a third) today at that site because the weather has been bad the past week due to TS Emily passing by, meaning fewer divers, and it gave the LF a chance to slip back into this area.

 

[lionfisher]

Here in Florida Keys National Marine Sanctuary, they've employed a mutli-prong approach, including permitting lionfish removal from otherwise no-take zones (where other forms of fishing aren't allowed) and lionfish derbies. Some recent articles downplayed derbies as control strategies, but derbies can be a gateway to get divers accustomed to removing lionfish. Less than three short years after the first reported sighting in the Keys, Keys divers are catching them and eating them on a regular basis. Lobster season just started, and every day when my friends limit-out on lobster they go after lionfish, and have a surf n' spine feast. Alos, Keys derby have scientists from US Geological Survey on hand collecting stomach contents, genetic samples and ear bones.

BTW, any help spreading the word on next weekend's Key Largo derby would be much much appreciated. THANKS!!

Two lionfish derbies remain in the 2011 Florida Keys series. Saturday, Aug 20 in Key Largo and Saturday, Nov 5 in Key West.
Registration is only $120 in advance (or $150 late) for up a team of up to four divers and includes a pair of puncture resistant glove and banquet tix.

Rules and registration online at Florida Keys Derbies | Reef Environmental Education Foundation (REEF)
Mandetory captains' meeting night prior at Coconuts Restaurant in Key Largo.

Local hotels and dive shops offering discounts:
Holiday Inn Key Largo, right next to Coconuts, is offering a special rate of $105/night for derby participants. (305) 451-2121
Dive In Watersports is offering a 25% discount on boat rentals for derby participants. (305) 852-1919
Key Dives is offering a 20% discount on two tank dive trips and 20% off in-store merchandise. (888) 505-8557
Harry Harris Park Boat Ramp has an Oceanside launch and trailer parking for $5/person. Competitors who are not from Monroe County must also pay a $10/boat fee. (305) 852-7161

More than $3,300 in cash and prizes up for grabs for most, biggest and smallest lionfish.
MOST LIONFISH: $1,000 cash, $500 cash, $250 Divers Direct Gift Certificate
BIGGEST LIONFISH: $500 cash, $200 cash, $100 Divers Direct Gift Certificate
SMALLEST LIONFISH: $500 cash, $200 cash, $100 Divers Direct Gift Certificate