#14
Killing lionfish, does it work?
divesummit - 3/11/2012 12:07 PM
Category: General
Replies: 4

Just wondering what everyone’s opinion regarding killing lionfish in north America was? Do you believe this is a waste of time or too dangerous to pursue or do you think we are making any headway in culling their numbers?

Brian
Divesummit
#1200
Dutch - 3/11/2012 12:44 PM
It is not too dangerous to do. And any lionfish that is killed is one more lionfish that is not around to reproduce. There needs to be a consequent action to see to it that more are captured and/or killed. Anything less is going to take too much time to help.
#3400
JoePagano - 3/11/2012 8:42 PM
We need to equip any diver that wishes a small multi prong speer and a short safety course with the intent to kill any lionfish that is encountered. Want to bring em back? Fine, if not just let em rot or be consumed.
Bottom line, we need to be pro active and do so as soon as possible. Will this turn the tide? I am not an expert and could not venture a guess. But common sense tells us we have an opportunity to at least do something, an unusual situation to actually have a chance to help, and what the heck, I would enjoy the sport of it.
#20384
LatitudeAdjustment - 3/12/2012 8:32 AM
Lionfish live as deep as 600’ so we will never get them all but they are ravenous and eat everything including the cleaner fish and shrimp so the reef health is at stake.

They lay thousands of eggs so each one we remove makes a difference plus they taste good. Even if you don’t eat fish, once speared many reef predators will eat lionfish served to them.
#2309
Subscribed
Scuba-Smurf - 3/16/2012 4:46 AM
The question is why are there so many to start with... there must be a breakdown of the reef demographics to allow one species to overrun the area. Maybe because of overfishing of the predators or some other reason... I don’t agree with human interference on a reef as this would be the main cause, but saying that, if it has to be done to control then it’s ok I guess... I would leave it to the professionals tho as their sting is nasty :o)