Lionfish injury in Florida 2016

[KeithG]

Between Goingforsound video and Johnoly links, I know how I want to go about this. I did not want to deal with a speargun, but the trident looks simpler since I don't have to reload. The video it looks like stabbing litter in the park, but since your floating, I think there's going to be a lot of practice involved.

We watched the dive op pole spear lion fish on our last trip. They used the Simba Slayer linked above. It is powered by an elastic band thingy (may have been surgical tubing?). So they "shot" it as opposed to stabbed with it as seen in the video.

It looked fairly easy to use, but seems like it would require good hand strength since you have to hold the shaft against the stretch of the elastic. To fire, you simply let go of the shaft. It was very useful for targeting lionfish hiding in cracks and crevasses in between coral heads

 

[RyanT]

What giffenk is describing is called a pole spear. They are actually quite easy to use and control. Unlike a spear gun, you don't have a shaft that is flying multiple body lengths away from you. Particularly if you use a short pole, (all you need for lion fish) the distance it shoots forward might be on the order of 3' or 4'. The learning curve for pole spears is pretty low, and once you figure out how to use it, they are especially easy and effective for lion fish harvesting. The Zookeeper container is a bit bulky to carry around underwater, but coupled with a pole spear, it's a really safe and effective way of harvesting lion fish.

 

[uncfnp]

Other then carelessness, I think the biggest risk of injury is during the cleaning.

I have seen lionfish harvested by pole and speargun and seen them transported every way imaginable. The Zookeeper or someting similar is very effective but as RyanT said it is bulky. I have also seen bags similar to lobster hotels used and actual lobster hotels. Other divers have just cut the spines off under water then strung them.

One diver strung them, spines intact then just played out some cave line and let them drift behind him but he was on a scooter. I think my favorite, and what I may try next, was a lobster hotel he put on a reel then let it drift behind him if he caught any worth keeping (drift dives). Heck, I have even seen them brought up on the end of the pole/spear if they were particularly large.

 

[HalcyonDaze]

Sounds like what happened was the diver got stung and either had a really bad reaction or just panicked; the chamber visit would seem to indicate a DCS hit.

I generally try to kill these things wherever I see them (outside of my rare trips to the Indo-Pacific, where they actually belong). Typically I either use a short 3-prong pole spear or a big 6' pole spear that has a six-pointed tip on it. I've gotten hit four times and either I got a low dose or am just resistant. One was in the knuckles while taking some dead ones out of a cooler, one was in a fingertip while scraping a lionfish off a spear and into a container (that was such a little nick it hardly even counted), one was in a finger while stabbing a lionfish with my knife (my spear didn't have a barbed tip and I needed to drag it out of the crevice), and one was in the underside of the forearm while packing a big lionfish into a zookeeper. The latter was the worst; I got hit at around 100 ft and felt a mild tingling/burning sensation in the area. I recall the feeling extending up to my shoulder, although it wasn't bad and I continued the dive. It seemed to get a little worse as I ascended. On the surface I put hot packs on it for about an hour and then did the second dive; there didn't seem to be any swelling and the area just felt bruised for a week or two.

Depending on my loadout and the conditions I may or may not keep them; carrying a canister and a camera with strobes is a bit of an overload (especially on high-current drift dives) and on the shark feeds I really don't want to tempt fate by having a canister of dead, bleeding fish on me. The latter being said, I generally haven't had major problems with sharks. I had a bull shadow me at a distance during a tournament; she started to make a run at me as I was on my way up but broke off once I dove at her head-on. Lemons are pesky but relatively easy to deal with so long as you see them coming; they're opportunists that try to sneak up on you. The worst time I've had with sharks while spearing lionfish was actually with juvenile Caribbean reef sharks; they'll mug you in a blink.

 

[ofg-1]

This is how to shoot lionfish.

 

[Blueringocto_73]

Good to see that some eradication effort is being done to slow their spread. Just too many breeding with few natural predators. Years ago I kept one in an aquarium. Interesting as a captive.

Seeing the heartbreaking invasion and it's devastating effects on reef populations doesn't make them quite so attractive to me anymore. They cause nuisance stings generally but the occaissional serious envenomation on children is very worrying.

 

[Johnoly]

......., but seems like it would require good hand strength since you have to hold the shaft against the stretch of the elastic......

Excellent description,,,because it's really easy to load but difficult to hold for more than 15 seconds with loose gloves that slip.

What I learned from a dive buddy is to use that 'save a dive' O-ring kit we all carry Take 2 -3 of the o-rings in that kit and roll them up over the twines to where you place your grip as you stretch the band on the tri-tip lion pole spear. Space them about an inch apart rolling them into a good shooting band position. Then cover/wrap on top of them with either electrical tape {best} or even duct tape and stretch it super tight to give a sharp profile on top of the O-rings. The contours give you an easy grip holding point with one hand.

Others have used rough Stair Tread tape too, but it doesn't last as long. YMMV.

 

[wgw04024]

After all this, now I want to do nothing more than Lion fish hunt....

 

[CuzzA]

Read this Teen Surfer Bitten by Shark While Wearing Device Designed to Reduce Risk of Attack - Inside Edition

Personally I wouldn't waste my money, you're more likely to get injured every time you get in a car.

That is not the Shark Shield in the article. The article states the teen was wearing the tiny Shark Banz, which is a gimmick IMO. I spearfish and wear the Shark Shield Freedom 7 and since I started wearing it sharks generally bolt in my presence even with dead bleeding fish on my hip or at a minimum maintain a distance from me. In fact, in this video you can see one of three bull sharks coming up to eat me as I surface and as soon as it hits my Jedi Shark Force Field it bends and turns tail. That said, even with the Shark Shield if there are multiple sharks ganged up together, I'll get out of the water. It's not an end all solution, but it helps from being ambushed.

Skip to 8:20 if you want to see the shark vs. Freedom 7.

 

[Bubblesong]

Ofg-1 that Glock looks like a lot of fun, but I also want to eat the the lionfish. After that blast, there is barely enough clean lionfish to spread on toast. Now for little ones not worth eating, at least it would kill them off. I wonder if someone could convert a nail gun for the little lionfish?