A Lionfish Hunt – Reefs.com

John C January 12, 2019 Saltwater No Comments

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I came across these the other day and thought I’d share ‘em. This was the first time I’d ever seen a lionfish hunt! I think most folk now know that lionfish from the Indo pacific are making a nuisance of themselves throughout the Caribbean and upwards. With no natural predators, they have spread far and wide at quite a pace.

In an attempt to combat the lionfish menace the diving community has organized a range of activities that generally involve killing them, from catching competitions to cook outs. These pictures show how it was done at one site I visited. In the Indo Pacific, Lionfish are easy to approach, but in the Caribbean it seems they are a little more wary. Multi pointed and barbed harpoons are used to spear and dispatch the fish. Some divers carry two to make sure they can kill the fish quickly.
The divers then use shears to cut off the venomous spines before transferring the fish to net bags.
Some divers use tubes into which the speared fish are transferred, though I have heard that these can act like lionfish ‘cannons’ when the divers surface and the tubes have become blocked and thus retained pressure. I’m not sure if the folk who told me this tale were joking or not, but it sounds almost plausible. I was fortunate to have a fish cooked for me and I can tell you, they are delicious.

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Categories:

Conservation, Fish

Richard Aspinall

(298 articles)

Richard lives in Scotland where he works as a freelance writer and photographer. Richard writes for several magazines on topics as diverse as scuba diving, travel and wildlife.

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