Lionfish in Cozumel

[scubawife]

Marine Park has announced that the Second Lionfish Tournament will be held Sat., May 30. Cash prizes again. This one also involves cooked lionfish dishes if I understand the announcement correctly. Don't have event details now...

CORRECTION: May 30 is a SUNDAY. I have sooo much trouble using this Colores de Cozumel calendar as its weeks start with Monday & end on Sunday.

Is there a website or contact info for the tournament?

 

[deborahdelamar]

Is there a website or contact info for the tournament?

No web presence that I'm aware of. Info & registration at the marine park office.

 

[Okc_diver]

we saw one on yesterdays dive the DM tried to capture it but it got away. Today the DM found 1 and captured it. On dive 2 I found 2 of them I got the Dm's attention and he caught 1 of them the other was farther back in the rocky area there I saw them. When we turned the first 1 in it was said that there were 8 captured today (not including the 2 I saw). Who knows what (how many) we will find tomorrow!

(I can't remember the names of the dive sites we visited)

 

[5615mike]

Last 5 days.............10 dives............14 Lion Fish seen.........12 Casualties............

 

[MMM]

Just got this in my Cozumel4Cozumel newsletter. Too bad about low turnout...

2nd Lionfish Tournament has Unexpected Results

Last Sunday’s Second Lionfish Tournament was modified at the last minute, due to a lower than expected turn out. Two boats and 4 shore teams participated in the modified tournament, with slightly more than 50 lionfish removed from our island’s reefs, with judges urging participants to concentrate on the Villa Blanca reef as well as the Punta Langosta area. Local Cozumel restaurants, Casa Mission and Perlita del Caribe, conducted tasting demonstrations of captured lionfish, creating delicious dishes such as lionfish ceviche, breaded lionfish and grilled lionfish.
Congratulations to Fredy Sima Azueta, Abelardo Ku Iuit, and Manuel Ruiz Ramírez, who won in the shore division, and to the crew of the “Jew Fish” from Living Underwater who won in the boat division. Although prizes were given out, lionfish were captured and eaten, the grand cash prize was not awarded, and will instead be saved for the next tournament, when there will be more participants.

 

[Himself]

Too bad about low turnout...

Never seems that the Lionfish have a low turnout.

I wish the locals would let divers, at their own risk, take action against these dangers to the reef, to the diving, and to the economic wellbeing of the locals themselves.

Instead they just seem to have a plan to not have a plan.

 

[5615mike]

Just got this in my Cozumel4Cozumel newsletter. Too bad about low turnout...

2nd Lionfish Tournament has Unexpected Results

Last Sunday’s Second Lionfish Tournament was modified at the last minute, due to a lower than expected turn out. Two boats and 4 shore teams participated in the modified tournament, with slightly more than 50 lionfish removed from our island’s reefs, with judges urging participants to concentrate on the Villa Blanca reef as well as the Punta Langosta area. Local Cozumel restaurants, Casa Mission and Perlita del Caribe, conducted tasting demonstrations of captured lionfish, creating delicious dishes such as lionfish ceviche, breaded lionfish and grilled lionfish.
Congratulations to Fredy Sima Azueta, Abelardo Ku Iuit, and Manuel Ruiz Ramírez, who won in the shore division, and to the crew of the “Jew Fish” from Living Underwater who won in the boat division. Although prizes were given out, lionfish were captured and eaten, the grand cash prize was not awarded, and will instead be saved for the next tournament, when there will be more participants.

Hard to imagine so few captured/killed. On 16 dives we saw 18 total fish. Most had their days ended. We dove mostly on Bara/San Juan and Marricaibo so we were on the extreme ends of the park during our 8 days of diving.

 

[firstdive2005]

I was told dive ops did not enter because of cheating at the last tourney.

 

[CZMDM]

Never seems that the Lionfish have a low turnout.

I wish the locals would let divers, at their own risk, take action against these dangers to the reef, to the diving, and to the economic wellbeing of the locals themselves.

Instead they just seem to have a plan to not have a plan.

To allow divers to use spearguns or slings to shoot and kill Lion Fish is a terrible idea. First off about half the divers can't even hook their own gear to a tank. When I go by large groups of divers I very often see them crashing into the reef, crashing into each other, walking or laying on the reef to get a photo. Do you really think it would be a good idea to let these guys dive with a weapon? I would never want to be around anybody with any type of sling or speargun that I did not personally know.

That said....the lion fish population is growing at an amazing rate. Just in the last two days I saw over 9 of them. One today at the wall at San Francisco was the biggest lionfish I have ever seen at over a foot long.

 

[geokr]

They're going to get 4-5 inches bigger in time depending on how they like the local food and the effectiveness of control efforts. I understand your concern with "divers gone wild" with spears but it could also be an opportunity for you as a DM to properly train people (for a small fee of course) in their proper use as part of their certification to use them in the park. That way you can exert some level of control over human stupidity as you do in other regards as a DM. A Hawaiian sling doesn't require much skill and can be used safely even in close proximity to other divers. Ensuring that your divers, if trained properly, act responsibly with spears shouldn't be any more difficult than controlling any other activity they engage in while in the park. Act like a fool and you're out of the pool. Getting them trained right from the start is a necessary step to make sure they don't do the things you're concerned about. And a chance for you to make it pay. My 2 cents....