Lionfish in Cozumel

[scubawife]

I think that folks need to act before the numbers get out of hand. It would be great if the Marine Park, or interested stakeholders in the Cozumel reefs, such as dive ops, fishermen, and the fishing charter ops, got together and offered a bounty.

WANTED -- Dead or Alive, Lionfish, etc.

If the numbers are kept small a decent size bounty would be practical, and the profit motive could be enlisted to do to lionfish what it's done to other species. The price of shark fins has led to a reduction in the population of sharks by almost 90%. On second thought, maybe we can start a small epicurean movement and convince the Chinese that Lionfish are a rare and unique delicacy.

Love that! Replace Shark Fin Soup with Lionfish whatever! Market it as some kind of viagra from the sea product too, that'll increase demand too. But of course it would have to be a very specific campaign that gets the message out that it's the Caribbean lionfish that is desirable, not those found in the Pacific.

The idea of making it a free for all to cull the lionfish is something I'm not too comfortable with. Don't we already see enough idiots doing dumb stuff out there? I don't want to even think what would happen to many of those said morons if, completely untrained, they start using their dives to hunt lionfish... Have the park work with people from REEF who are already experienced with this issues and get a good number of dive masters and fishermen trained to do the job safely and effectively.

REEF has their first lionfish expedition to Belize planned for later this year and I think I saw they were just in Turks & Caicos. I guess Cozumel will be added to the list? :depressed:

 

[DIVECOZUMEL]

Here is a story with photo from the Turks and Caicos paper from Dec if anyone is interested in reading more.

http://www.tcweeklynews.com/default...bname=&pform=&sc=2404&hn=tcweeklynews&he=.com

 

[don Francisco]

Have the park work with people from REEF who are already experienced with this issues and get a good number of dive masters and fishermen trained to do the job safely and effectively.

I agree that it would be better to have some organization and training vs a free for all.
But one lesson from prior incidents, involving these "genie out of the bottle" scenarios is that while people debate, fishes reproduce.

A part of the problem is that while all that all that hand wringing is goes on the situation rapidly developes to where it's beyond repair. It's probably already too late to eradicate the Atlantic/Caribbean lionfish population and we'll have to settle for management strategies. In the meantime we have to think about how to respond to "time is of the essence" scenarios in the future.

 

[don Francisco]

Love that! Replace Shark Fin Soup with Lionfish whatever! Market it as some kind of viagra from the sea product too, that'll increase demand too. But of course it would have to be a very specific campaign that gets the message out that it's the Caribbean lionfish that is desirable, not those found in the Pacific.

We need a really good story, something surefire, to get folks into the chase. it has to be very exotic and have a cultish flavor. Viagra's overdone, penile enlargement, hunger suppressment, or maybe an enzyme that blocks the absorbtion of fats might sell better. Of course it would have to be because of some unique cross breeding that only happened in the Caribbean.

I'll see if I can get the folks at the ONN - www.theonion.com - working on it.

 

[Christi]

I haven't commented much on this yet, because I am/was waiting for more info from the MP regarding the plan of action.

Arturo, one of my instructors is also a marine biologist. He has been meeting with the marine park over the past few days regarding this and other issues. I will be posting an update after Arturo briefs me

In the meantime, I can say that the MP here is planning an aggressive/pro-active approach to the Lion Fish issue!

 

[weaponeer]

The Florida Conch Divers forum has a Lionfish thread (go figure - lionfish are everywhere now!), http://www.scubaboard.com/forums/florida-conch-divers/270318-lionfish-invade-broward.html. Good read on what's going on there. Info from REEF.ORG.

 

[MyPC8MyBrain]

To save you a bunch of research time, listed below is about everything you might ever want to know about the Lionfish and Atlantic infestations.

I thought this was interesting:
"FWIW, they have traced genetically every lionfish they've ever found in the Atlantic back to six individuals."

The us government is scratching their head, but gathering information:
Everything you wanted to know about Lionfish compliments of US government

Pretty obvious where this started. Although some say they came in ballast tanks of container ships,the accepted source is an aquarium release during hurricane Andrew in Florida:

They have been dealing with this for a while in the Bahamas
Good article about Lionfish in the Bahamas

Good video from MSNBC:
INTERESTING MSNBC VIDEO

If you get through all this, you will be a Lionfish expert.. and hater :biggun:

 

[DIVECOZUMEL]

"FWIW, they have traced genetically every lionfish they've ever found in the Atlantic back to six individuals."

WHOA...that chart is wild....Thx for the info....

 

[geokr]

I haven't commented much on this yet, because I am/was waiting for more info from the MP regarding the plan of action.

Arturo, one of my instructors is also a marine biologist. He has been meeting with the marine park over the past few days regarding this and other issues. I will be posting an update after Arturo briefs me

In the meantime, I can say that the MP here is planning an aggressive/pro-active approach to the Lion Fish issue!

I wouldn't wait for anybody to decide a course of action - there's really only one - eradicate every one you see. Now. Period. It's not important for the government to decide on what to do which will then make it alright - you already know what to do. The question you're struggling with is one of ethics. We all want to be moral and law-abiding, that is the nature of decent people. This threat to the ocean (and to many peoples livelihood) is advancing far faster than law and, because we're decent people, we want to wait for the moral and legal course of action to be determined by "government" to guide us on what to do. Meanwhile, as we wait for the government, these fish are establishing themselves in what is likely to be an increasingly irreversible way and as they do the chances for any form of coping with this threat to native fish populations is evaporating. You make your living on this earth by promoting the native fish population. Lionfish make their living eating the native fish population that provides you your living. Why wait for the government to decide what to do? They don't belong here. They threaten not only your living but the livelhood of many others such as fishermen and a whole host of other people who use the products of the sea. There's really only one solution - kill these fish at every opportunity. Don't wait for the government to legitimize your course of action. Don't waste time hand wringing about what to do while someone who makes their living off of your tax dollars is deciding to do what you already know. And, if you want to make some moral use of those dead lionfish I would be more than happy to send you some recipes!

By the way - this is an issue we're going to be facing soon here in the States as they make their way clockwise around the Gulf of Mexico. Congress has not and will not react any faster to this threat than any other Caribbean or Central American government and won't until the shrimp harvest off Galveston isn't enough to feed a Super Bowl tailgate party. The root of this problem is our government's allowing of non-native species to be imported here for someone's pleasure. Don't expect a timely solution from them.

Wow!!! I feel better!!!

"People get the kind of government they deserve"
Alexis deToqueville - 1835

 

[Christi]

we aren't waiting for them to tell us what to do...we are already intructed to remove them and or report them. I'm talking about a long term formal plan. Unlike the problem with this in the US the marine park and dive shops are being aggressive about doing what we can. One out of two reported have been captured... And the two reported may have actually been the same fish. Obviously there are more out there if there's one but we have to find them before we can get rid of them.