one of the coolest things we saw this trip!

[Sorrows]

Actually there are many who love to spear lionfish, and when possible, eat them. The problem is that so many dive destinations in the Caribbean prohibit spearfishing, including for lionfish.

A number of countries have begun to allow it and lionfish killing competitions and barbeques are quite popular where they are allowed. Not a lot of "sport" in killing them, I suppose, but it is popular nonetheless.

Of course it isn't a solution to the problem, but it cuts down the populations a little.

Yes, I think the lionfish round-ups they have from time to time are a great idea. But how to, excuse me, sex it up a bit? Offer prizes? Awards for the biggest, most caught, etc? Are braggint rights enough?

It just seems like the Hemingway factor is missing--we need to see some published accounts of intrepid hunters conquering their most innermost fears as they went mano-a-mano with the dreaded lionfish, a terrible brush with death, and then--aha!--victory! Something like that.

I get why so many places (Bonaire) don't allow civilians to spearfish their lionfish--I guess they are afraid that these unknown civilians will start killing other fish or that accidents will result. But they for sure need a better system then they have right now. Like I said, I was pleasantly surprised by the low numbers of lionfish we saw in Cozumel in March.

 

[lionfish-eater]

Last trip one of the divers was photographing an odd "creature". It was a small light colored oval with yellow "hairs". You could hear his disappointment when I wrote Mango pit on my slate.

 

[Sorrows]

When I am diving there I go down deeper to get the ones that do go deep, they are the adults. They are huge. They are also very tricky to get. They dont pose for the shot like the young ones do.

THAT's what I'm talking about! Fishermen pay HUGE amounts of money to wrestle with and catch the more challenging species--I mean, fishing can be way more expensive than diving. (!!!) Perhaps we need to present lionfish-hunting more as a sport, rather than an environmentally-friendly good deed?

All kidding aside, though--many thanks for your efforts and public service.

 

[Mossman]

Yes, DMs and divers still do stupid things like this in some places. They also take frozen peas down to feed the fish. I think it is a horrible practice as their is really nothing edible for humans or fish in the cheese whiz. At least the peas are a vegetable. Feeding fish like that does make them more likely to follow around people, snorkelers in particular like to do it. I have heard of people getting bitten by fish due to this practice.

And in places we have dived in the Pacific, all food scraps from boats - breakfast, lunch, and dinner on a liveaboard as well as food prep scraps are tossed in the water behind the boats. We watched schools of fish hang out there, and sharks showed up to pick off the fish at night.... the food chain in action. It was part of our nightly entertainment... watching the sharks dart in and out of the schools.

And our dive boats in Hawaii used to have everyone toss their watermelon rinds, banana peels, etc. into the water for the fish. Ditto in Florida, Bonaire, California, NC, and Bahamas.

I was freaked out snorkeling in Hanauma Bay, Oahu, well before I started diving. They sell fish food, but the second you open it, you're mobbed and I was nipped several times.

I've been on several liveaboards where they dump food overboard to feed the fishies. In Cocos, we had a silky shark that would swim around the boat every night looking for handouts. The worst was in the San Benitos islands where a bull sealion had taken a liking to our handouts and followed the boat around from site to site. He eventually became a nuisance since he would hang out right by the ladder and it was a bit unnerving to climb out of the water with a huge hungry beast lurking around. However, these were limited feedings because the boats are infrequent. The number of DMs that feed lionfish to other critters in Cozumel probably numbers hundreds per day. That can develop some bad habits.

 

[Brules]

Instead of lugging down school supplies, people need to start bringing these:

Amazon.com: BladeX5 22600 Gripa, Cut,Slash,Puncture Resistant Gloves Cut Resistant Level 5 EN388 CE Approved, Rubber Coated, grey, Large: Home Improvement

 

[robint]

I get why so many places (Bonaire) don't allow civilians to spearfish their lionfish--I guess they are afraid that these unknown civilians will start killing other fish or that accidents will result. But they for sure need a better system then they have right now. Like I said, I was pleasantly surprised by the low numbers of lionfish we saw in Cozumel in March.

yes... in Bonaire last year we heard some divers talking about seeing lots of lionfish laying on the bottom... We told them those are scorpionfish.