firstdive2005
Contributor
I've been killing them for a couple years now. Even have my own homemade sling waiting to be used over and over again on Coz. I could care less that some divers have an issue with me killing them on my dives. Whenever I have done my duty on them, not once did I come close to injuring another diver. Managed to get a little hit from one on my index finger, three hours of some kinda sore then poof, pain gone. Weird sting. Had bee stings that felt worse though.
Also snapper love to eat them. After feeding the carcass to one it followed me for the rest of my dive. It was hilarious. Just like a hungry dog. Stayed within arms length of me and whenever I looked under ledges I swear it was waging its' tail when I came out. Too funny.
I have talked to lots of Dms that wont kill them for their own reasons and thats fine. The majority will dispatch them. Some are ok with their well known divers killing them as long as they are really experienced. But the common thing is, not responsible for your actions underwater. I know I have just invited a real blast but I'm down with that. Most dont know how I dive or how experienced I am and thats' fine. The people that I dive with trust me, that's all that matters, I also trust them. For one thing they know I'm a solo diver so I take all responsibility for my actions, from diving to hunting. And I do a lot of hunting on Coz.
On every dive I have been on at Cozumel in the last couple years I have had my eyes trained to spot lionfish. Just like spotting the life on the reef. After a while the creatures pop because your eyes are trained for the difference not the camoflague. Like most that dive with great dive masters anywhere that love to show off their prowess at finding critters I followed them and watched for what they where looking at before they found whatever they where looking for. Eventually I caught on to some of their little 'island' spotting secrets. Too much fun. It's easy to spot the big stuff, it's the macro that I love finding. Like pipe horse for instance.
These things are all spotted during dives that I have dedicated to finding at least one lionfish to kill. For me I dont need a divemaster to make my dive succesful. But I certainly can appreciate those that want their dm to spot creatures and lead the dive. I think it would be a good thing during the dive briefing, so there are no hard feelings, to tell the dm whether or not one is ok with him/her doing any lionfish hunting on their dive. Nothing wrong with that.
Oh one other thing, when we fed the snapper the dead lionfish we wondered if it would hurt it. The snapper stayed with me for the rest of the dive and that was for at least 45mins. Later we would have the same type of experience. Once we fed a green moray, we waited for 10 mins near its' den to see if there would be a reaction. There was none at that time. This is by far not a means of saying that the poison from the lionfish wont hurt the creatures we fed, I'm saying the ones we fed didnt seem to get affected at that time. And I know first hand the poison will transfer after death of the pez leon.
To the ones that are going to flame the crap out of me, I talked to the authorities about what I was doing and I was told, in my words now, just be careful. They know my experience with hunting and expressed that they would prefer divers not do it, but did not say I would be prosecuted in any way for killing a lionfish in the park.
By the way, the official word is that dms are the only ones that have authority to dispatch the lionfish. Which by the way is a good idea. People may think that the lionfish are slow moving fish as they appear that way. They are lightning fast when attacked. They can dart so fast a diver would not know what hit him, so be warned about getting too close to them.
kevin
Also snapper love to eat them. After feeding the carcass to one it followed me for the rest of my dive. It was hilarious. Just like a hungry dog. Stayed within arms length of me and whenever I looked under ledges I swear it was waging its' tail when I came out. Too funny.
I have talked to lots of Dms that wont kill them for their own reasons and thats fine. The majority will dispatch them. Some are ok with their well known divers killing them as long as they are really experienced. But the common thing is, not responsible for your actions underwater. I know I have just invited a real blast but I'm down with that. Most dont know how I dive or how experienced I am and thats' fine. The people that I dive with trust me, that's all that matters, I also trust them. For one thing they know I'm a solo diver so I take all responsibility for my actions, from diving to hunting. And I do a lot of hunting on Coz.
On every dive I have been on at Cozumel in the last couple years I have had my eyes trained to spot lionfish. Just like spotting the life on the reef. After a while the creatures pop because your eyes are trained for the difference not the camoflague. Like most that dive with great dive masters anywhere that love to show off their prowess at finding critters I followed them and watched for what they where looking at before they found whatever they where looking for. Eventually I caught on to some of their little 'island' spotting secrets. Too much fun. It's easy to spot the big stuff, it's the macro that I love finding. Like pipe horse for instance.
These things are all spotted during dives that I have dedicated to finding at least one lionfish to kill. For me I dont need a divemaster to make my dive succesful. But I certainly can appreciate those that want their dm to spot creatures and lead the dive. I think it would be a good thing during the dive briefing, so there are no hard feelings, to tell the dm whether or not one is ok with him/her doing any lionfish hunting on their dive. Nothing wrong with that.
Oh one other thing, when we fed the snapper the dead lionfish we wondered if it would hurt it. The snapper stayed with me for the rest of the dive and that was for at least 45mins. Later we would have the same type of experience. Once we fed a green moray, we waited for 10 mins near its' den to see if there would be a reaction. There was none at that time. This is by far not a means of saying that the poison from the lionfish wont hurt the creatures we fed, I'm saying the ones we fed didnt seem to get affected at that time. And I know first hand the poison will transfer after death of the pez leon.
To the ones that are going to flame the crap out of me, I talked to the authorities about what I was doing and I was told, in my words now, just be careful. They know my experience with hunting and expressed that they would prefer divers not do it, but did not say I would be prosecuted in any way for killing a lionfish in the park.
By the way, the official word is that dms are the only ones that have authority to dispatch the lionfish. Which by the way is a good idea. People may think that the lionfish are slow moving fish as they appear that way. They are lightning fast when attacked. They can dart so fast a diver would not know what hit him, so be warned about getting too close to them.
kevin
