lionfish spearing

[Nick A]

Here's an interesting read on the lionfish... Apparently they have so much to eat that they are becoming obese!!!
Lionfish invasion: The invasive fish are eating so many native species that they?re obese. - Slate Magazine

Awesome article. I dove with the writer, cool chick and I was one of the Discovery Diving crew that pulled those lionfish and pictured with them (dude in the blue boardshorts, next to Capt Leroy, Captian's Lady)

 

[HalcyonDaze]

I would be interested in seeing what would happen if divers around Juno Beach and Jupiter ( where there is a very large shark population of bulls and reefs) began injuring Lionfish and looking for ways to make them "accessable" to the sharks.....Emerald and a few other boats are bringing the bulls in by spearing jacks....and getting bulls all over them--this would be the perfect time to attempt to get the sharks to start eating lionfish....instead of these guys feeding the sharks the speared jacks....

From what JIm Abernethy tells me from all the shark work he has been involved with in the last few years, sharks are far more intelligent than we used to think....much closer to family dog smart...AND they can learn about food effectively.
The issue would be, if they decide they like the easy wounded lionfish meals enough....would they decide to grab non-wounded lionfish?

Could a group like Emerald, carry alive but wounded lionfish with them from a dive inception( a previous dive where a half dozen had already been collected) without the lionfish dieing off before the sharks showed up...the struggling of the lionfish is going to be a key to triggering the right behavior.

Thoughts?

We had a post from REEF earlier in this thread discouraging that practice out of concern for harming the predators. Morays I can see - soft tissue and not much body mass. Big groupers and snappers on the other hand seem to wolf dead lionfish down with gusto. Larger sharks like hammerheads and tigers will take on big stingrays and not be bothered much by having a railroad spike-sized venom barb jammed into their face - not to mention that their mating behavior includes holding on with their jaws. I think they can hack a little lionfish venom for that spicy taste. If I recall, some DMs in the Caribbean have been presenting reefies with dead and wounded lionfish and the sharks have started to target them on their own.

I generally leave the little ones for the scavengers anyway once I've knifed them in the brainpan - if they're not worth the effort of bagging and filleting, I'm more than happy to let critters with smaller appetites than mine have a go.

 

[opie712]

Got my mako pole spear in today have to say for 25 bucks what a deal very well made can't wait to try it out

 

[mjsylver]

If anyone is interested.