"The Wetter The Better" save lionfish from death

[Uncle J.J.]

From what I understand the only effective way to kill a lionfish is to stab it through the head with a samurai pen.

 

[Pelagicsal]

Somebody earlier said he smashed one with a fin. Kinda liked that......

 

[FredL]

Late to this convo, but with an interesting update.

I dove with The Wetter The Better this weekend. It was a good trip with a superior dive charter. Between dives, one of the crew would go down just to harvest lionfish. Seems they have come a long way in the past 2 years.

 

[deepstops]

Late to this convo, but with an interesting update.

I dove with The Wetter The Better this weekend. It was a good trip with a superior dive charter. Between dives, one of the crew would go down just to harvest lionfish. Seems they have come a long way in the past 2 years.

It's good to know they got with the program

 

[Tom Smedley]

Perhaps the divemaster was not saving the lionfish but rather the (can't come up with a PC name) divers who were trying to juge him with a knife. These animals hang around head down and can charge with dorsals erect at lightening speed. Proper training and proper equipment is what you need to harvest Lionfish...... Trying to rid a reef of lionfish by killing them one at a time is like trying to rid a grain warehouse of rats by killing them one at a time. The reproduction rate is usually the winner.

 

[deepstops]

Trying to rid a reef of lionfish by killing them one at a time is like trying to rid a grain warehouse of rats by killing them one at a time. The reproduction rate is usually the winner.

But a few good men doing nothing is how evil triumphs

 

[Orlando Eric]

As usual I agree with Brian. I'll kill everyone I see and will stay to kill everyone I can as long as the elastic band holds out and my gas last.

 

[Hank49]

It's been 3-4 years since we started seeing them here in Belize. I thought I would kill as many as I could find but coming to my senses, I realized that there was no way we could control the numbers here because only about 10-15% of the reef is even dived here with any regularity. And that's only to recreational depths.
I go out every week free dive spearfishing from depths of 15 to 80 feet. Yes, I see then here and there but they haven't taken over the reefs like everyone said would happen.
Sunday I spent a lot of time in a shallow cut (10-30 feet) and only saw about 4 nice fat ones. Where were all the little ones? I was there for 3-4 hours. Seems to be the same amount of reef fish there was 6-7 years ago. The snapper populations haven't been decreasing. This year there were LOTS.
The long term effects of this invasion are yet to be seen and I'm not yet convinced that it will be bad. There isn't anything we can do here anyway in the long term so we have no choice but to observe and see what happens.

 

[Tom Winters]

This killing lionfish is just bad juju. I always enjoyed seeing them all over the Pacific, but I never saw them in Hawaiian waters - just an occasional turkeyfish.
So they're here now and they'll balance out. I didn't think they could tolerate the non-tropical water temperatures of the continental US.

 

[Angry Turtle]

This killing lionfish is just bad juju. I always enjoyed seeing them all over the Pacific, but I never saw them in Hawaiian waters - just an occasional turkeyfish.
So they're here now and they'll balance out. I didn't think they could tolerate the non-tropical water temperatures of the continental US.

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

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

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.