Lionfish/DM's don't care!

[scubawife]

I know of one DM who caught 5 in a week, and I'm sure he's not the only one. It's unfortunate that the 3 DM's you've had aren't supporting the marine park's protocol for dealing with the lionfish.

I'd bring it up with the shop manager or owner. Find out if they support the park's initiative and if they've attended or sent any of their staff to attend the meetings and/or training regarding the lionfish.

Maybe you should also consider contacting the marine park office yourself and let them know your specific experiences with the DM's you've had who showed no interest in either reporting or capturing the lionfish they see. Sounds like the park authorities need to get out and visit a some shops and go over the lionfish program they have in place again.

 

[ggunn]

I concur.. People need to get it through their thick skulls that you cannot police the ocean and you cant take out a whole fish population. Its just too big an area to cover.

I too like the lionfish and had forewarned our DMs that if we found any, that they were not to report them as I didnt want that. They all agreed. The power of green. Gotta love it.

How lucky we thick-skulled humans are to have you hanging around on internet forums to set us straight, o enlightened one!

It may indeed be futile to attempt to stuff the toothpaste back in the tube in this case, but there is nothing "green" about the introduction of lionfish to the Caribbean. It is yet another incident of us thick skulled humans damaging an ecosystem through carelessness.

IMO, adopting the stance that anything human beings do to the planet is "natural" (and therefore OK) is silly and self serving. By that logic, strip mining, clearcutting, and air and water pollution are "natural" processes. The Chernobyl disaster was a natural process?

 

[scubafanatic]

I generally always agree with your insightful posts but not this one. Please do not let our current political direction drain your love of diving and sea life although I admit it's quite difficult. Non-native Lionfish are current devastating the native juvenile fish populations of grouper, snapper, etc. on reefs all around New Providence Island and surrounding areas in the Bahamas. Personally, I would much rather dive on reefs that have an abundance and variety of sea life as has been the case for the past thousands if not millions of years. You may wish to wait thousands of years for nature to run it's course but I can assure you that the divers in SE Florida will not stand by and see our reefs ruined without putting up a gallant fight. Our forebears did a pretty good job of devasting the grouper populations, especially the goliaths so I have no doubt that we can have a similar or greater impact in slowing the Lionfish's growth in these waters. Too stupid to leave them alone? Perhaps for quarry divers. We will be just fine...

...with respect to drawing a parallel between the decimation of Groupers and concluding humanity can inflict similiar damage to the 'invading' lionfish, you are forgetting the following details:

1) it is illegal for divers in Coz to be 'armed'
2) it is illegal for divers in Coz to wear gloves.
3) it is illegal for divers to take matters into their own hands and kill lionfish.
4) I think it is illegal for even a Mexican DM to harm a lionfish...the most they can do is 'capture' it and turn it in to the authorities....beats me why Coz can't/won't get serious and defend itself with 'force' !

...so I don't think lionfish have too much to worry about from humans, especially given the fact that it isn't 'PC' to forcefully go after lionfish in Coz.....they will either establish an equilibrium within the ecosystem, afterall even lionfish will go extinct if they eat ALL their prey.....or some other check-and-balance will evolve, either a new predator.....or a disease (like the diseases that have recently decimated spiny black sea urchins, or the fungus that's killing off so many Carribbean sea-fans and corals.)

.......the lionfish infestation is just the most obvious manifestation of man's assult on the environment (along with over-fishing/global warming/sea level rise/pollution/over development)

...as much as I hate to say this.....scuba is a twilight industry/sport and we are living in/witnessing it's 'last days'.....I see the distruction/emptiness of the seas increasing on every dive trip...and lionfish will just accelerate the final collapse a bit.

 

[peterbj7]

There's little point in killing lionfish as it is indeed too late for us to stop them breeding out of control. Which isn't to say that there's nothing we can do. Down here we're trying to get a moratorium on catching groupers, as they are one of the lionfish's few predators. More groupers = fewer lionfish.

 

[geokr]

Can't say that I agree with just throwing up your hands and letting Nature do her thing. It's true that lionfish cannot be controlled in the entirety of the ocean, at least on this side of the world. But the park environment CAN be protected if the threat is kept to a minimum. You're sure not going to get all of them but you can keep the numbers down by allowing the killing of these predators in the park and on sight as is done elsewhere. By doing so you will be preserving as much of the natural environment that exists in the park today as is humanly possible. That will have to do until science comes up with a better way. If humans chose to always let Nature just have her way we would still be living in a world with malarial mosquitos everywhere, floods wherever Nature wanted them to be and still suffering every type of disease that we have had the chance to cure, just to name a few. But we don't. We go out and do something about it and controlling lionfish is just another of those challenges. And it's not about changing Nature, it's entirely about preserving it where and as it exists today.

Hunting lionfish in the park would be beneficial for several reasons. First, it would protect the park's existing environment and there isn't a fish in the park that would disagree with that. Like they need more predators. Secondly, hunting is a "sport" that a lot of divers enjoy and I don't think there would be any shortage of people who would volunteer do it. Even non-hunters who are environmentally conscious would do it for ecological reasons. Finally, hunting expeditions and the sales of equipment, permits, training and certification to hunt lionfish could be a boon to dive operators who are now facing the loss of the lush marine environment that keeps people coming to Cozumel to dive. Lionfish are nice to look at but if that's all there is to see then that view going to get old faster than that hottie you picked up in the bar just before closing time.

So, I see the invasion that's now occurring as an opportunity to do something different that will protect the existing environment in the park, promote diving for new, environmentally beneficially reasons and a benefit to dive operators who could not only protect the business they're selling but maybe profit from new sales.

They ain't going away and the DMs got other things to do. Rather than just acquiescing to whatever fate they bring, there are ways to keep this lionfish invasion from becoming a disaster that might just be a win-win both for the park and the diving community. I know I keep beating this drum but I really believe that something besides moaning and making excuses about Nature's way will be necessary to keep this beautiful place worth going to. The authorities in Coz are going to have to think differently if they're going to keep their park a draw for tourists and divers. My 2 cents.

 

[LCromwell]

I realize what I am about to say is from a very long time ago,1976. I went on a 14 day trip to Israel and the Red Sea 10 days of it diving 3 to 4 dives a day off the Sinai Desert, no boat dives back then. I saw both kinds of Lionfish and it was like diving in an over stocked aquarium. No shortage of any reef fish and there were plenty of Lionfish living among the other fish,so I am surprised that the Lionfish are decimating our waters and the Bahamas? I have heard that many of the Island inhabitants are eating the reef fish,rather than starve,and that is creating a shortage of reef fish.

 

[MMM]

I too like the lionfish and had forewarned our DMs that if we found any, that they were not to report them as I didnt want that. They all agreed. The power of green. Gotta love it.

Reporting lionfish to park authorities is, I believe, a new policy. So what you are saying is you think bribery is OK so that they will overlook policy? Guess you're good with people fishing in the park if they have bribed the crew?

 

[geokr]

I realize what I am about to say is from a very long time ago,1976. I went on a 14 day trip to Israel and the Red Sea 10 days of it diving 3 to 4 dives a day off the Sinai Desert, no boat dives back then. I saw both kinds of Lionfish and it was like diving in an over stocked aquarium. No shortage of any reef fish and there were plenty of Lionfish living among the other fish,so I am surprised that the Lionfish are decimating our waters and the Bahamas? I have heard that many of the Island inhabitants are eating the reef fish,rather than starve,and that is creating a shortage of reef fish.

You're pointing out something that there must be an answer for but science hasn't discovered it yet. There must be some reason these fish can live in harmony as they do in the Red Sea, eastern IO and western Pacific, even in South Africa. But, there's something about those places that isn't present here and that's why their population is exploding here rather than in some form of natural control as elsewhere. Fifteen dives on the Barrier Reef - saw one lionfish. One dive in the Bahamas, fifteen lionfish. What's up with that?

 

[peterbj7]

That's simply because the lionfish have evolved locally to be in equilibrium with their predators and prey. I don't see American grey squirrels rampaging throughout your country eating other indigenous creatures out of house and home, but when some misguided individual brought them over to the UK and released them that's exactly what they did. They were out of step with their environment. Just like rabbits in Australia.

 

[geokr]

That's simply because the lionfish have evolved locally to be in equilibrium with their predators and prey. I don't see American grey squirrels rampaging throughout your country eating other indigenous creatures out of house and home, but when some misguided individual brought them over to the UK and released them that's exactly what they did. They were out of step with their environment. Just like rabbits in Australia.

That's because they couldn't find a decent restaurant until you finally began importing Tandoori and Thai.