"The Wetter The Better" save lionfish from death

[blackvans1234]

Ill kill them because the LDS will reimburse me the 30 dollars for my lion tamer if I have evidence that I killed 15 of them

 

[Tom Winters]

What makes you think they are different from other invasive species that do not balance out?

So what's taken over here that wasn't here before? The crown-of-thorns was supposed to eat all the reefs in every ocean but didn't quite pan out. What else is screwing things up? Even zebra mussels in the Great Lakes do have the plus of having cleaned up those filthy murky green waters up there. The snakeheads are about to invade Lake Okeechobee - not much that can be done there. They're fun to catch though. Nasty bastards to deal with.

Outside of anecdotal evidence from some, they do not seem to have a natural predator in the Atlantic.

So you agree that all these people with the little maestro-baton spearguns are indeed unnatural predators?

Regarding non-tropical water temp--> they seem to thrive just fine off the North Carolina waters, and they have been observed as far up as Rhode Island, presumably riding the Gulf Stream.

This one I still can't fathom. I only saw them in sub-tropical Indo-Pacific waters where it was also warm enough for sea snakes. These are waters like Fiji and the Coral Sea - warm stuff. I think I only ever saw one sea snake in the cooler Hawaiian waters, and that was off Kona which is still 1,200 miles from the equator. I'll bet that one was a tank release too.
I wanted to have a nice seasnake skin jacket and boots - the guys in Hong Kong could work wonders with whatever stuff you dragged across their thresholds. I needed about 300 of the critters just for the jacket and I couldn't see any way of getting that many of them, even if I ran into one of those rare breeding events where they swarmed intertidal surf zones. Those were times when the surf would be full of writhing seasnakes. Grabbing, skinning, dealing with them just wasn't in the cards. I liked seasnakes too - always make a great dive seeing them wiggling around and going topside to breathe.
These lionfish in cooler Atlantic waters do seem strange. Maybe the Maine lobster, Homarus americanus, will now come south and cluster in the Boca Raton area. By then, all these other Boca Raton divers who are busy groping nurse sharks will have been processed out of the food chain thus eliminating competition for me. I bet the Maine lobsters are gonna love eating lionfish.

 

[Angry Turtle]

So what's taken over here that wasn't here before? The crown-of-thorns was supposed to eat all the reefs in every ocean but didn't quite pan out. What else is screwing things up? Even zebra mussels in the Great Lakes do have the plus of having cleaned up those filthy murky green waters up there. The snakeheads are about to invade Lake Okeechobee - not much that can be done there. They're fun to catch though. Nasty bastards to deal with.

come on, really? quick google search...Nonindigenous Aquatic Species[Group],Genus,Species,SubSpecies&submit2=Submit

The Zebra mussels in the great lakes are a horrible pest, they feed on the phytoplankton which is the base of the food web. That clearing up of the water that you mention, just tells you that the Zebra mussels have depleted the phytoplankton. They shift the nutrient balance to the bottom of the lake by filtering algae and organic matter and sending it to the bottom on their feces. This shifts the ecologic make up of the lake, bottom feeders flourish, open water feeders disappear; large leafy underwater plants flourish in clear water and enriched bottoms.

So you agree that all these people with the little maestro-baton spearguns are indeed unnatural predators?

This one I still can't fathom. I only saw them in sub-tropical Indo-Pacific waters where it was also warm enough for sea snakes. These are waters like Fiji and the Coral Sea - warm stuff. I think I only ever saw one sea snake in the cooler Hawaiian waters, and that was off Kona which is still 1,200 miles from the equator. I'll bet that one was a tank release too.
I wanted to have a nice seasnake skin jacket and boots - the guys in Hong Kong could work wonders with whatever stuff you dragged across their thresholds. I needed about 300 of the critters just for the jacket and I couldn't see any way of getting that many of them, even if I ran into one of those rare breeding events where they swarmed intertidal surf zones. Those were times when the surf would be full of writhing seasnakes. Grabbing, skinning, dealing with them just wasn't in the cards. I liked seasnakes too - always make a great dive seeing them wiggling around and going topside to breathe.
These lionfish in cooler Atlantic waters do seem strange. Maybe the Maine lobster, Homarus americanus, will now come south and cluster in the Boca Raton area. By then, all these other Boca Raton divers who are busy groping nurse sharks will have been processed out of the food chain thus eliminating competition for me. I bet the Maine lobsters are gonna love eating lionfish.

 

[Hank49]

The zebra mussels are converting algae biomass into mussel biomass. If they weren't there the same nutrient balance would end up on the bottom in the form or dying and raining out algae cells. The algae is there because of the unnatural levels of available nutrients.
There is a guy on here from the Bahamas who is conducting a study that are shows healthier reefs (than 10 years ago or so) where the lionfish are prevalent. It has to do with predation of other fish that eat corals by the lions, who have actually replaced some of the larger (grouper, snapper) predators in the food chain.
I agree, invasive species are annoying and sometimes very destructive. But the idea that "if we all just go out and kill as many as we can" is futile. They're just too wide spread now and in areas where no one is doing anything about them. Plus, where are the fish that are in Belize even coming from? The larvae are pelagic at one point. If we kill all our fish here, which will be impossible, who benefits? Cozumel?
Your children's grandchildren's grandchildren and so on will have to have the same diligence as you seem to have in the ongoing effort to control this fish. It won't happen.

come on, really? quick google search...Nonindigenous Aquatic Species[Group],Genus,Species,SubSpecies&submit2=Submit

The Zebra mussels in the great lakes are a horrible pest, they feed on the phytoplankton which is the base of the food web. That clearing up of the water that you mention, just tells you that the Zebra mussels have depleted the phytoplankton. They shift the nutrient balance to the bottom of the lake by filtering algae and organic matter and sending it to the bottom on their feces. This shifts the ecologic make up of the lake, bottom feeders flourish, open water feeders disappear; large leafy underwater plants flourish in clear water and enriched bottoms.

 

[nivram]

Unfortunately lion fish have established a breeding population here. No matter how many you kill. Who's killing the breeding adults that have been seen in a 1000+ feet of water?

Personally I'm waiting to find a large enough specimen to collect and try battered and fried in grease