NOAA and East Coast Lionfish Invasion

[gfisher4792]

News story: http://story.news.yahoo.com/news?tm...e=5&u=/ap/20040521/ap_on_sc/lionfish_invasion

NOAA Link: http://coastalscience.noaa.gov/stressors/invasives/science.html

 

[mikswi]

Intresting...Have you seen one in the area's that you dive?

 

[archman]

Namely, what we divers can do about it.

Scuba divers can help with the NOAA research effort by reporting lionfish sightings to Dr. Donald Hoss, Director, NOAA Beaufort Laboratory; 101 Pivers Island Rd. Beaufort, NC 28516-9722; phone: (252) 728-8746; fax: (252) 728-8784; email: don.hoss@noaa.gov. Please be prepared to provide coordinates of where the lionfish was found and at what depth. If possible, a photograph should accompany the above information. A fact sheet containing a photo of a lionfish is available on the Internet at:
http://shrimp.bea.nmfs.gov/research/lionfish_factsheet.pdf.

If you'd like to do some ACTUAL ecological good, spear or bag the dang things. Exotics do not fall under any U.S. fisheries protections, so you can murder all you want. NOAA doesn't have 10% of the staffing to deal with this problem. In fact they don't seem to even have an eradication plan in the works... merely monitoring. That's little more than a delaying tactic to make it look like they're doing something, while all that's actually happening is more lionfish babies are being made.
I heartily encourage everyone who knows what a lionfish looks like to kill/remove them on sight. You can report the coordinates to Doc Hoss afterward, and ship him the carcass if you kept it. Watch out for the spines.

 

[charmygirl]

Thanks for the info. The picture on the NOAA site is really remarkable. I know people like to see exotic species up close in their fish tanks, but I hate it when they release them into the wild. We are having a hell of a time getting rid of the snakeheads (fish) some idiot dumped into a Maryland pond a few years ago. The damn things can walk on land and live out of water for days so we are seeing them in the Potomac river in VA now.

K

 

[gfisher4792]

Hunting invasive fish to save the indigenous species and ecosystem. I'm game! It's a shame to see this becoming a bigger and bigger problem.

Damn, those snakeheads are ugly.