Lionfish in Belize

[Papa_Bear]

The entire Caribbean will be full of them in no time at all! Here is everything you might want to know! Two Tanked Productions HD & SD Underwater Productions and video services

 

[tiggrr]

Kill Em All!!

Seriously.


I know I want to.

Is there an alternative to using a spear gun? Any ideas for the general recreational diver to take em out if we run across one???

 

[Doubler]

Rsiegel
Lionfish are beautiful and a wonder to see in their NATURAL habitat. The problem with these fish is that they are predators with a very healthy appetite. The reef fish in Indonesia and other places where Lions are a part of the Eco system are use to them being around, Know the dangers and avoid them. A Fairy basslet, blackcap or juvenile drum fish have no idea the danger they present and are easy and plentiful prey. The more they eat the more they breed the more the natural inhabitants of the reef disappear. My advice to my Belizian friend swould be to kill them when you see them and leave the Groupers alone for a while. Groupers eat Lion fish.

 

[psumike]

Have you sent a report to REEF?

from their site:

Please continue to encourage reporting of all sightings of non-native marinespecies to REEF at Exotic Species Sighting Program | Reef Environmental Education Foundation (REEF). To find our more about REEF's Lionfish Invasion Research Program, visit Lionfish Research Program | Reef Environmental Education Foundation (REEF).

Mike

 

[robint]

As a casual reader of scuba board I came across this post and I have to ask what is wrong with lionfish. I am from California so we don't have any here, but I have seen them in Indonesia, Egypt, Bonaire, and Belize. My wife and I find them kind of cool to look at.

So what are they doing to you guys over there?

Curious

Randy.

P.S. I'll spear anything for a Belikin.

I think you are confusing species. Bonaire has not reported any lionfish and neither has Belize until this post. I think you are seeing scorpionfish, maybe?
The lionfish are very prevalent in NC, Florida, and Bahamas currently and recent sightings in Turks & Caicos, but as far as I know, they haven't made it down to the Caribbean area yet.
The problem is that in the Caribbean they seem to be eating all the juvenile fish and could potentially wipe out some fish as there isn't a natural predator for them. They have been found in the stomachs of grouper recently in Fla so there is hope that larger fish are starting to eat them. In the Pacific and Red Sea, where they are common, there are predators which keep their population in check.

robin

 

[rsiegel]

I thought that I did see them, but I was in Bonaire in 2004 and Belize 2006, so maybe I am not remembering correctly. I would like to think that I would not confuse a lionfish with a scorpionfish, they don't look that similar, but maybe I did.

I any case, I was just curious. All of your posts and some extra reading on my part has made me aware of an issue that I was previously ignorant to. Thanks for the help. I will look at these intriguing fish a little differently from now on.

Randy

 

[scubafanatic]

....I don't see much hope of a call-to-arms being a realistic solution here folks...not given the abundant hysteria seen on numerous threads here concerning divers with knives (for example, the big, long thread recently over on the 'Cozumel' section)....'armed' divers are less and less politically correct these days.....so allowing divers to have spear guns is even more hilarious than letting them have knives.....either we'll get lucky with a natural predator/pathogen 'solution' as a check-and-balance on lionfish......or maybe we won't 'get lucky' and we'll suffer the consequences of yet another man-made eco-catastrophe !

 

[Hank49]

....I don't see much hope of a call-to-arms being a realistic solution here folks...not given the abundant hysteria seen on numerous threads here concerning divers with knives (for example, the big, long thread recently over on the 'Cozumel' section)....'armed' divers are less and less politically correct these days.....so allowing divers to have spear guns is even more hilarious than letting them have knives.....either we'll get lucky with a natural predator/pathogen 'solution' as a check-and-balance on lionfish......or maybe we won't 'get lucky' and we'll suffer the consequences of yet another man-made eco-catastrophe !

Hey, this is no time for logic and common sense. KILL, KILL, KILL..... !!!!!!!

 

[scubafanatic]

......the optimum solutions would be to convince the Chinese that shark-fin soup is for wussies, and that REAL men are into the true Viagra-of-the-seas, lionfish spines !

 

[archman]

The species is territorial, slow-moving, and bright as day. They're sitting ducks for spears and nets.

No, killing them on a one-by-one basis won't return things to status quo. Not unless they're breeding sites are destroyed, and that's probably going to be impossible.

What killing the little nasties on a one-by-one basis WILL DO is mitigate their local damage. Governments, NGO's and citizens have been doing exotics removal (on even worse species) for decades. In most cases the exotic is never truly removed, but its numbers are kept in check... at least where removal efforts are regularly practiced.

It's just like weeding... except you're underwater, have sharp objects, and the "weed" is highly venomous. A challenge like *this* should appeal to many divers.

And the biologists would be grateful...