Dave from Current took us out on his adopted reefs to clean them of lionfish. We got 22! Other groups of boaters joined us on the hunt. Among them was a 10 year old young man, Joseph, who speared 4! You can view the video here : http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=uWVq0eCLn94 . An interesting note: I speared one lionfish and introduced him to a spotted moray eel. The eel devoured him in seconds! The eel was around 3ft and the lionfish was around 8". Proof that the moray eel is a natural predator of the lionfish! Recently a friend of mine, who is a lobster fisherman, did an experiment while gathering lobster. He injured a lionfish and noticed within seconds a trigger fish devouring the lionfish. Proof that the trigger fish is a natural predator of the lionfish. I also tried to find juvenile lionfish on the reefs and only found one during the whole day of fishing. Either they are hiding well or being eaten by something. This needs to be looked into further. Please help in our efforts to clean the reefs of these fish and document your findings by submitting lionfish stories here.
2 comments:
good to hear.
I agree as I've witnessed this as well. I had a moray in an aquarium that devoured a lionfish about twice as thick in girth. It ate it from behind and left the head, pectorals, and dorsal spines intact. I doubt present eel abundance and predation will be enough to stop their spread at the moment though.
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