Lion Fish have arrived

[smb2]

Well it didn't take long, perhaps 6 weeks from the first sightings of Lion fish in Aruba to several now spotted in Curacao. It will be a futile effort to contain them. Anybody seen any good recipes??
I was shooting macro today in shallow water and out came this little one from under a cave in some Brain coral. He ate three damsels while I was shooting but I only got one poor shot with the tail coming out of the mouth.

 

[wuzup3]

Those are some amazing pics! Can't wait til they make it here to NY :rollface:

 

[smb2]

They are all the way to R.I.

 

[IFbettas]

Are you allowed to collect/kill those? I saw on the news a few weeks ago that there were people going out and killing lionfish and then cooking them and eating them. Supposedly they taste pretty good...

 

[smb2]

In the Bahamas they are on the menu of many restaurants.
Right now it is open season on them here. Most dive shops are catching them when they can, but only one side of the island has regular diving and the fish will live at 300 to 3 feet.
Haven't heard of any large ones sighted here yet.

 

[Elysia]

So, are these lions the result of the successful breeding by lions originally released by hobbyists into the ocean, or is it believed that some ocean current may play a part? Or was it hobbyists initially, the lions being able to reproduce, and currents now distributing them to new locations? Having never gone diving, are lions a very common fish off of the coast of FL and is that where these lions are suspected to have common from?

 

[username in use]

Lions have become common along the entire east coast of the u.s. up to mass./Road Island. As far as I know you can kill as many as you want as they are viewed as a pest.

 

[smb2]

My understanding is that there are two different DNA populations. One thought to come from N.O. after Katrina and the other from Fla. Both spread by currents throughout most of the Caribbean and up the East cost as high as R.I. [Those individuals are on a one way trip on the Gulf Stream and die in the winter.]
They breed at a very young age and once they get a reasonable size they do not have many natural competitors. Curacao is a perfect example. All the large groupers and sharks have been fished out. The Lion fish will eat any fish it can swallow and if they reduce the number of herbivores on the reefs, algae will take over and damage coral.

 

[evilspaz]

Nice pics! :thumbsup: I think they taste good grilled.

 

[smb2]

Sad thing is they are quite photogenic and now you don't have to fly all day to dive with them. Hard to eat what you just photographed!

 

[rachenbrazil]

Deep fried lions are delicious ...

 

[LobsterOfJustice]

Wow, look at the belly bulge on those last two pics! Proof of the havoc they are wreaking...

This lionfish situation (going back almost 10 years now) is really a black eye for the hobby.

 

[anbosu]

Wow, look at the belly bulge on those last two pics! Proof of the havoc they are wreaking...

This lionfish situation (going back almost 10 years now) is really a black eye for the hobby.

It is unfortunate but foreign species invasion is a problem that has been going on for hundreds of years and it is far from limited to lionfish. If they open up lionfish collection to every dive boat and let fishermen catch as many as they can it will at least have some effect on the population. At some point too the other fish will start to learn what they need to do to avoid them (it may take a while) or fight back.

 

[smb2]

Don't think sport diving and fishing will make a dent in the population. Lion Fish are just as happy at 300 ft as they are at 3 ft. A dive boat today saw five, but only one side of this island is amenable to regular diving the other side being to rough.
What we need are some big a$$ Tiger and Nassau groupers and some sharks.

I would like to see all sales of Volitans [at least] in the US banned accept those caught in the Atlantic. Probably won't help much either. I have no idea how many are sold in a year.

 

[LobsterOfJustice]

Yeah, they hang out well below recreational dive limits. AFAIK there is nothing to "open up" on them - you can go and kill as many as you'd like.

 

[Elysia]

The New Orleans and FL lions are the result of hobbyists, right? And then the fish that would have eaten these lions have been overfished? Man....

 

[smb2]

The New Orleans and FL lions are the result of hobbyists, right?

I have read a lot of articles with different answers. Somebody here may know better. The NO fish may have come from their public aquarium when it was damaged by the storm.

 

[anbosu]

Larvae could have been transported in the bilge water of a ship too. Unless it is something totally obvious (like Burmese Pythons in the Everglades) it is really tough to blame it on one thing. It seems far fetched that a few lions from the New Orleans aquarium could populate the entire Atlantic coast of the US in a few years, but I guess you never know.

In the Caymen Islands they aren't allowed to collect them, they are supposed to report them to some central service (which really isn't going to do any good). I would guess the rules are different by country.

 

[LobsterOfJustice]

It's pretty well accepted that ballastwater is not to blame. Larval stages of fish are very delicate to physical damage, light levels, food availability, etc. There is one specific instance of a beachfront aquarium containing 6 lionfish in florida breaking in hurricane Andrew - additionally, I'm sure many are released from aquariums. Something like 15 of the 18 invasive fish in the atlantic are all popular aquarium fish.

 

[OldNemo]

That belly is huge! Same thing is happening in freshwater (or has been with snakeheads in US ponds and lakes). Plus, recently here in MN, Asian Carp have been found. :mad2: