FWC News release: Lion Fish invasion

FWC News Release: Lionfish invasion: FWC moves forward with management changes

 

interesting… those guys are causing all sorts of problems. Hopefully they can sort it out before the damage is undoable (that doesn't even look like a word lol)

 

Here's a few pics I took last year while running a dive boat out of the Hillsboro Inlet.
These are hauls are nothing special, any moderately coordinated diver could take this many any time. Plus their taste and texture is just like hogfish.

 

My thoughts:

1) Yes they have a problem that needs addressed.

2) By banning the import, sales, and aquaculture of lionfish, they're only restricting the responsible aquarists who wish to keep one legally; as with pretty much everything else, those with no regard for the law will find someone who will supply them for the right price.

3) Adding a permit requirement would:
a) allow anyone to keep lionfish.
b) provide another venue for the eradication of the invasion by allowing juveniles to be captured alive and sold as pets.
c) provide the commission with additional funding for their efforts to eradicate the invasion.
d) allow the commission to monitor the permissible population.

3) If the ban is passed, at least some other states will probably follow suit, regardless how ridiculous (i.e. dumping a lionfish in the Boone River or Donegal Lake will not spark an invasion : ).

 

They have recently found our waters in T&T. More so in Tobago rather than Trinidad.
I don't think I will eat them though.
I currently have a red volitans in one of my tanks for a number of years and everybody wants to buy him. I would never sell him even though, since the import ban, i have been offered a lot of money for him.
I was contemplating going to tobago to bring back a couple to put in my shop for sale but I have no idea the legal implications associated with selling them as pets in my country.

 

The chances of lionfishes being aquacultured are pretty darned small, as first, the eggs need to hatch, and secondly, the fish need to be gotten out of the larval/planktonic stage. We had a breeding pair of fuzzy dwarfs, and never saw fry one from the egg masses they laid.

That being said, education and eradication is indeed the key, altho I'd prefer to see them catching and selling more of the FL specimens in the trade. I'm sure that folks would buy these fishes over imported specimens.

FWIW, we do stand behind removing lionfishes from sites where they are not endemic, and have even made some of our resources available to the Bahamian government to add to their education/eradication efforts.

We do not, however agree that a wholesale ban on lionfishes is the answer.

 

So is there any sort of regulations on harvesting the lionfish? Or is it a free for all? Just curious as I am in college studying water resource managament and hope to land a fisheries management job someday. This kinda stuff peaks my interest!!