Kill the lionfish?

I heard Lionfish tastes awesome. There are several cookbooks on the subject.
When I dove Key Largo, in October, I didnt see any, but I was told that they just had a roundup a week before we got there.
 
I have slain many o lion fish.. They are everywhere in key west coastal and offshore my personal best is around 18" and about a pound. I have no qualms with the fish themselves it's their effect on the ecosystem that I live in. They eat alot of tropical fish and juvenile reef fish. When I'm collecting I ALWAYS see lion fish and they never flea. They are bold making them an easy target. One of my friends (commercial) collector sells wild Caribbean lion fish. To the Miami wholesales.. Pretty cool
 
almost feel sorry for the poor basterds...

Really? They don't run from you, they are killing off our reef fish, they taste good, seems like everyone is killing them and yet we cannot control there numbers? Sounds like a creature from hell!
 
In addition to habitat alteration and destruction invasive species have a huge impact to our biological communities.

I can go in my back yard and find 4 highly invasive species: chinese privet, tree of heaven, multiflora rose, and mimosa (5 if you want to include my grass) right now. I also have English ivy that climbs up my trees and every spring bartlett pear trees bloom, everyone thinks how beautiful they are, and the first hard storm they splinter. They were suppose to be sterile but if you go into the mountain and see white that would be either a dogwood or a pear tree.

Usually if something has fur and a cute face we feel bad about killing them. For lionfish we feel bad because they are beautiful creatures, seem harmless, and hold a value for us. On the other side no one would care if we smashed zebra mussels all day long.

It will be interesting to see if we can have any real impact to their populations but it sounds like we will be using bubble gum to stop the dam from breaking if they can be found in the sea beds, the reefs, and in deeper waters.
 
almost feel sorry for the poor basterds...

I think I understand where you are coming from. After all, it's not their fault they are here. We were the ones who introduced them. But, they need to go.


It will be interesting to see if we can have any real impact to their populations but it sounds like we will be using bubble gum to stop the dam from breaking if they can be found in the sea beds, the reefs, and in deeper waters.

Agreed - great anaolgy. I try to remain optimistic, but.... it's difficult given the circumstances.

Mike
 
Don't feel sorry for them. They're like aquatic cockroaches down here and something drastic needs to be done soon.
 
I know down in Australia where they have incredible problems with invasive cane toads there are businesses that go out (or offer a bounty), catch the little buggers then grind them up and make them into fertilizer.

Wonder how good of fertilizer lionfish make? ;) (Likely too cost prohibitive though)
 
Don't kill the lionfish; catch them and sell them to the LFS. Seriously though, as an invasive species, eradication is the ultimate goal.
 
i have only seen two or three diving in the south pacific. they are definitely in check, population wise in there natural location.i believe the argument is between a hobbyist releasing them, or a hurricane causing an accidental release from a commercial / larger aquarium system.
 
Really? They don't run from you, they are killing off our reef fish, they taste good, seems like everyone is killing them and yet we cannot control there numbers? Sounds like a creature from hell!

...or the solution to our upcoming food crisis :)
 
Diving in Guam on more than one occasion i was completely surrounded by them. Kinda wigged me out since i couldn't see past them at all and it was dusk. I felt like Mario trying to dodge through them.

I cant really feel sorry for them though. Since they are invasive, they have no natural predators here in the atlantic. Im sure there are sharks in the pacific that keep the common lionfish in check since many sharks eat fairly noxious organisms. Not even the white sharks like them here. They have chummed with lionfish off the east coast to draw the whites in and even they don't eat them. Bluespotted cornetfish are a natural predator of the red lionfish but they aren't native to the atlantic either. Adding them to the atlantic could have a cane toad effect which we would like to avoid.

Conclusion for the atlantic ... kill em, kill em all
 
One year I saw none in the Keys, the next they were everywhere. Very invasive.
Curious thing is though, in the Philippines, where they eat pretty much anything they can catch, they don't eat lionfish. Not sure why, then I heard of some issues with ciguatera. That might be it. I never see Barracuda on the menu in the Keys, likely for the same reason.
 
Really? They don't run from you, they are killing off our reef fish, they taste good, seems like everyone is killing them and yet we cannot control there numbers? Sounds like a creature from hell!

That would make me feel bad. It's not that they aren't afraid to die, but that they don't know we are a threat.

As popular as lions are in the home aquarium, imo they should tend to capture them instead. It wouldn't be hard and I'd bet they could sell a live one to fish stores for a larger profit than dead to restaurants.
 
That would make me feel bad. It's not that they aren't afraid to die, but that they don't know we are a threat.

As popular as lions are in the home aquarium, imo they should tend to capture them instead. It wouldn't be hard and I'd bet they could sell a live one to fish stores for a larger profit than dead to restaurants.

What do you do with the other 99.99% of the invasive population?

As you said a "live one" would be great but there aren't enough tanks for every lionfish around.

It does bring up a good point though: How many are sold per year in the trade?
 
Unfortunately lion fish have destroyed so may ecosystems as they have limited natural predators and it sucks but they must be dealt with. Lionfish is a great fish to eat and i could see some sort of business being made off of lionfish that could give a jult to florida's economy. Lionfish are destructive but they could do us a little good.
 
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