Someone has been feeding this nurse shark

[jd950]

How do you make a dent on lionfish by harvesting them one at a time when they breed at depths deeper than they can be harvested?

Frustrating, isn't it? All we can do is slow the proliferation. Unless something new comes along, we almost certainly can't get rid of them, but each lionfish killed saves some number of reef fish and takes one lionfish out of the breeding population. Maybe some horrible lionfish-only disease will wipe them out...

Has there been any invasive species introduced by humans that was subsequently eliminated, except maybe cats on Baltra island?

Beyond killing and eating the lions, we should do what we can to support the native species, primarily by not eating them. It remains possible (I think) that if we had a large and healthy grouper population that might help, but the research is not very positive and it would be hard to build up a widespread robust grouper population under current circumstances.

It's kind of ironic when you think about it. We go out and kill the lionfish to protect grouper, snapper etc. We then go out to dinner and order snapper, grouper, etc., for dinner.

 

[Mike]

I'd like to see all the countries of the Caribbean donate $250,000 each to a fund to research lionfish. Or agree to add a tourist scuba tax of twenty five cents to every diver and collect that toward a research fund.

Step #1 would be to actually run a controlled experiment to see if anything can be 'taught' to eat them.

Be nice to offer a large cash prize or grants to anyone who can come up with a lionfish trap too.

 

[chillyinCanada]

Someone did come up with a lionfish trap. It hasn't taken off for some reason.

 

[Mike]

I assume Cooney's attempt didn't pass the trials, never got to them, or a serious flaw has already been exposed

 

[Dave Dillehay]

Dear Mike,, I know you and I share many similar opinions…but go back up to post 41 and watch that grouper take a live and not damaged lion fish. Groupers are very smart.

Dave

Nobody in any country in the entire Caribbean or Gulf of Mexico has any indisputable evidence that they've 'taught' anything to start eating lionfish in the last 5 years that this dumb theory has been going around. Give it up. The longer people waste physical and mental resources on the false hopes of this dead end the longer it will side track pursuing real solutions.

 

[chillyinCanada]

I found this interesting but again it is from last summer. Would be nice to get an update on Cooney's trap and how the Nichols family are doing with their catch.


The lionfish king: Turning a problem into palatable profit | Al Jazeera America

 

[sharky60]

yes, people have been feeding a lot of the predators on the island lionfish, hoping they will develop a taste for them. It's also my theory on why we've had more reports of "real sharks" on the reefs over the past couple years.

These reports of nurse sharks showing up on dives, following divers, "bumping" divers ( which isn't necessarily a sign of aggression, it's more like when a dog comes up and smells you. Repeated bumps...that's a different thing), have been going on for a couple years now at least.

I've also seen more large green morays free swimming along with us on dives, as well as being accompanied by an occasional snapper for most of a dive ...

...simple Pavlov dog response.

---------- Post added April 2nd, 2014 at 09:45 AM ----------

Dear Mike,, I know you and I share many similar opinions…but go back up to post 41 and watch that grouper take a live and not damaged lion fish. Groupers are very smart.

Dave

Yeah, I've seen video of large grouper taking a lionfish and almost immediately coughing it back up...I think you need a few rows of teeth to deal with one of 'dem critters.

 

[mikeycanuk]

On Cayman Brac the groupers act like pointer dogs. As soon as drop to depth a few of them will come to visit and hang around just like puppies. They also will sit and point whenever they find a lionfish, waiting for someone to spear it. I've heard they will take a live one when it's in the open, but never from it's hole.

The shark vid I posted explains why our DM on the Brac last year hightailed it back to the boat when the shark(s) kept showing up on our dive. We thought it was neat, my bet the DM didn't think not so neat.

 

[Qnape]

Yeah, I've seen video of large grouper taking a lionfish and almost immediately coughing it back up...I think you need a few rows of teeth to deal with one of 'dem critters.

I took the video linked on post #41, and I assure you, the grouper did NOT cough it back up (at least not within our sight). I observed this same behavior several times at Little Cayman - perhaps 6 or 7 times during the week (most of the times I was not with dm's - they do not require that divers be guided in the marine park there so mostly we go off in buddy pairs). On one occasion the grouper did spit the lionfish out, then reoriented itself, and swallowed it again. In all cases, the lionfish had been pushed away from the reef by the fin of a DM but was otherwise alive and uninjured.

This was last year. I'd be curious to know whether this is still being done there or not, and if not, why. At that time the staff at LCBR had stopped hunting lionfish when clients were present, and went on hunts at least once a week without clients. If they spotted a lionfish while with clients, and there were grouper around, they would push them into the water column as the video shows, and the grouper would take them. I also never saw a lionfish taken from it hole - but there was little hesitation by the grouper once it was away from the reef.

 

[Dave Dillehay]

Once in Cozumel we used to feed the animals, and that was an expected circus at Paso De Cedral. Again, I have scars to prove it! It was during that period that I came to realized they groupers are about as smart as my Yellow Lab—thus I won't ever eat grouper. Well, one time I did see a grouper cough something up…it had tried to swallow a little tube of Carmex lip ointment that had floated out of my pocket.

Having seen them eat disabled lion fish I am pretty well convinced that the sting does not affect them, at least much. Could I teach my Yellow Lab to eat lion fish? I think so, that is if it did not sting him.

Dave Dillehay
Aldora Divers