Lionfish hunting allowed in Bayahibe?

[Coco7]

We are thinking of a family vacation/drive trip to the Bayahibe area of the Dominican Republic and are trying to determine if 1) Lionfish hunting is allowed by divers 2) You can bring your own small polespears ?

Husband and I are both Rescue Divers, have taken a lionfish course, and hunted in the past. Got two new folding spears for Christmas and hope to try them out in late May. Don't want to lionfish exclusively, but perhaps shoot a few here and there as we see them on a couple of the dives.

Also, any pros/cons of the Viva Wyndham Palace? There are seven of us (five sons) so I want something nice, but reasonable. Is Dreams La Romana worth $3,000 more over 10 days? Any other suggestions? How is the diving in late May?

Thanks!

 

[DRsharky]

You can spear fish lion fish, we will be happy to get rid of more of them. As a matter of fact, we had a first lion fish fishing tournament in Bayahibe last month and killed almost 500 of them (from as small as 2" up to 12"). Of course not all dive shops allow it, because if you go diving with bigger groups, it might be dangerous to other divers, if you book private diving, you won't have problem and you can bring your pole spears too.
If your main reason coming to Bayahibe area is scuba diving then book a resort that suits your budget the best. All resorts are nice, just to get a shower and sleep in a room you don't need to pay extra $$$$. I would recommend Viva Palace, it's the resort next to Viva Beach, if you stay in Palace you can use facilities of both Viva resorts. Viva has a great entertainment team, so your guys will have fun, trapeze on the beach if they like to try. The con might be - the staff doesn't speak English much and some people don't like that, if you speak Spanish or Italian in this resort you won't have any problems to communicate.
The diving around Bayahibe is good all year around, towards the end of May we might get some showers, so the visibility might be a bit less then 100+ ft as usually. All depends how much rain we get.

 

[Coco7]

Thank you for your response! I just wasn't sure if there was any rules against it in any marine park areas. I did read that about the Viva staff not speaking much English and having a heavy Italian clientele. We spent time in Italy last summer and loved it (managing with a phrase book) so it will be more language practice! lol I've always taught my kids that if you are visiting a foreign country you need to learn the basic phrases since you are the guest there. I guess my main concern wherever we stay is that it is clean, with decent food, and has some fun things for the kids to do (ages 10-20). A private dive wouldn't be a bad idea. With our three older boys (16-20), we have five certified divers. Younger two (10 & 13) aren't certified yet but love to snorkel or could stay at the kids club.

 

[DRsharky]

If you speak Italian you won't have any problems.
Some people expect that all the staff will speak English anywhere in the world and if they don't, they are disappointed.