Lionfish Awareness and Elimination

[b-dog]

Here is one fish from Australia that eats the algae that overgrows the reef:

UnderwaterTimes.com | Researchers: Algae-eating Batfish May Come to Great Barrier Reef's Rescue

Batfish may come to Great Barrier Reef's rescue - environment - 18 December 2006 - New Scientist

 

[danvolker]

Here is one fish from Australia that eats the algae that overgrows the reef:

UnderwaterTimes.com | Researchers: Algae-eating Batfish May Come to Great Barrier Reef's Rescue

Batfish may come to Great Barrier Reef's rescue - environment - 18 December 2006 - New Scientist

We actually have these batfish here, we see lots of them at the Blue Heron Bridge.

 

[Hank49]

And to think you were ready to kick my butt for questioning the killing of them.... I was afraid to come to Lakeworth.

As much as I was one fo the posters early in this topic, that was in favor of Lionfish tournaments, I have to say this new concept of Trophic Collapse , meaning the depletion of APEX and higher level predators, allowing overpopulation of trophic levels below them, is changing my thinking....and the story Fred has shared with us of his experiences in the Bahamas, is just too strong to ignore. At this point, I am inclined to agree the Lionfish are replacing the higher level predators our commercial overfishing wiped out.

We are going to have reefs much like Fred's reef, where no one goes and shoots lionfish....and soon enough, we should be able to see the algae effects and herbivore implications. Certainly in the deep reefs off of palm beach, the 135 foot deep reef line, and the 220-270 foot reeflines, their is little to no human impact on Lionfish numbers....so any algae change will be readily apparent.

 

[danvolker]

And to think you were ready to kick my butt for questioning the killing of them.... I was afraid to come to Lakeworth.

Of course, now you have us stuck to work up some studies to see how this plays out here. You might have to help

 

[b-dog]

Here is a video about the batfish:

Florida Keys - Invasive Exotic Batfish WATERWAYS - YouTube

The batfish are not completely taking IMO over because other native fish still fill their niche and are plentiful while lionfish are doing so well because there are too many small reef fish due to overfishing of snappers, groupers and sharks that normally prey on small reef fish.

 

[bcossel]

They aren't, they're just a part of the ecology. People are actually thrilled to see them. They are after all, an interesting & beautiful fish. There are many species.

They only look interesting and beautiful to me on the end of my pole spear. They're all over the place out here in Guantanamo Bay, Cuba and most of us divers here go after them with regularity. They taste really good - so that's an extra benefit.

 

[b-dog]

I guess my main concern with the hunting of lionfish is that it disturbs the balance of an ecosystem. Sure the overfishing of groupers, snappers and sharks disturbs the balance of the marine ecosystem but I do not understand why disturbing it further will make the ecosystem better. It is almost impossible to stop people from overfishing because people pay to much money to eat seafood but the hunting of lionfish is deliberately trying to unbalance the ecosystem. If there are x amount of small fish then there needs to be a proportional amount of predators to maintain a healthy balance. Lionfish seem to be filling the predator void that has been caused by overfishing. I just wish people could just try to leave nature alone. Nature is a far better at achieving balance than man.

 

[Tim Tina Callanan]

Lion Fish are the worst thing to happen to Central America (Belize).If you do some research you will see the damage they are creating.We are killing them and eating them and trying to make them a delicacy in order to balance the fish population.The lion fish is here to stay,there are many advocacy groups out there.Next time you see Lion fish on the menu try it it is good !
Belize Island Life

 

[b-dog]

I was in Belize in January and went diving at Hol Chan and there were a lot of big groupers and snappers there. But it seemed like they were trained to look for food from the divemasters because they followed the boats and the divers everywhere. I think this might be one reason there are a lot of lionfish in Belize because the groupers and snappers look for a free meal instead of hunting for food which includes that being said I only three lionfish on the trip.

 

[Tim Tina Callanan]

Those are isolated spots,I have been here 16 years,San Pedro was a fishing village. This is not the keys, Belize has not been over fished.The lionfish are in deserted areas were divers don't go.We need to eat them one by one.