Excellent documentary on Lionfish - Species of Mass Destruction

Can you be more specific for those of us who are tv illiterate? What is SCI?

The more widespread the knowledge and awareness of this invasion the better! We (CORE) pulled 6 out today from along northshore (Salt River & Eagle Ray), and another team removed 15 earlier this week. Normally we remove many more but we're seeing our efforts paying off with dwindling/low numbers in many areas, although the west end will continue to be a hotspot.

Can you be more specific for those of us who are tv illiterate? What is SCI?

SCI=Science channel on 193 DISH TV.

I understand the whole lion fish issue. And I support getting rid of them. But there are thousands of miles of water and we are pulling out a few here and there. How does this stop them?

billd

They live on the reef system, not in open water, so that limits where they are. Compared to other islands, St. Croix's efforts to cull lionfish (which occurs daily by many dedicated divers around the island), actually seems to be helping. Many other islands are far more overrun than us. We have been very proactive, however, and those efforts seem to be paying off.

One of the more difficult problems is lionfish on the deeper reefs (200+ ft). Technical divers do go down there, but lionfish are much harder to control at that depth due to the limited bottom time of divers.

Scratch 2 more off of Blue Chute this afternoon! Both were juveniles less than 5 inches.

You make a very good point about the deeper ones being harder to cull. I was on the Cane Bay wall a few weeks ago at around 110 feet and saw two adults 20 feet or so below me but I was unable to go any deeper to get them.

Yes, we are doing a good job of keeping lion fish numbers lower around recreational dive sites.
Most dive masters on the island routinely carry spears and kill lion fish on sight every day that they are in the water. I believe Dr Coles with the DPNR has run transects between dive sites and found that the concentrations of lion fish are notably lower near dive site moorings. Below recreational limits I have seen many many lion fish, but faced with shorter bottom times and long decompression stops technical divers should be wary of interaction with them.
I think that the best we can hope for at this time is to keep on with killing lion fish near dive sites so as to provide the local reef fish a sanctuary in which to get a head start on growing up to face the menace. It seems to be having an effect. And great job to all the divers involved!

Pls. watch the documentary if you can Tues. night at 10PM or record it to watch when you are awake since it airs again on Wed. at 1AM and
5AM and once again on Thursday at 5AM - This week.

I had no idea how voracious and pervasive this species has become, all due the the release of a few lion fish from someone's aquarium off the coast of Miami. Since then, it has spread like a plague. It's territory now includes Georgia down to Argentina. It is a perfect predator and they have no natural predators in the warm Atlantic and Caribbean waters as they do in their native Indonesia. They not found in colder waters.

They don't seem to have any ocean habitat that they do not thrive in whether, it's reefs, piers, sandy bottomed locations and worst of all mangroves, which are considered a nursery for fish of various species. They'll even eat small crabs. They breed often and sexually mature early. One lionfish can release over 1000 eggs. They have been discovered in Costa Rica at depths of 800 -1000 ft. so deep water does not deter them.

The Governments of the Bahamas and Costa Rica work with fishermen and other groups trying to control this epidemic.
In the documentary they show how they continue to monitor, remove and kill lionfish from their reef locations, only to have them return again after 3-6 months. Hopefully, the time in between allows other fish to mature but the lionfish tenacity is daunting.

They are toxic and have 13 deadly spines on their back, poisonous spines are also located in front, at the rear and at their anal spines so they pretty much have themselves well covered.

One thing I was surprised at was that a large grouper in the Bahamas ate one and in the documentary they were also feeding the caught/dead lionfish to sharks to retrain them to accept lionfish as a food source. My surprise comes from why the lionfish toxin
was not deadly to the fish eating it. Of course they never said but it aroused my curiosity.
I think in Indonesia, their predators are groupers.

If you see lionfish report it and kill them.

Theres a baracudo named Psycho that gets fed these on a daily basis. Even finds them for divers to kill for him.

Since barracudas are territorial, it might be good to start feeding them lionfish to teach them to utilize as a food source as the documentary showed Bahamas attempting doing with sharks.

Can anyone answer why the fish that will eat the lionfish are not poisoned by to toxins in the spines when swallowed?

According to the documentary, even after being dead for a few days they must be handled gingerly by humans due to the still existing toxins in all the spines containing the poison.

Lionfish are venomous, not poisonous– there is a difference. Although both venomous and poisonous animals produce a toxin that can be harmful to other organisms, the method of delivery is different. Venomous organisms use a specific apparatus like spines or teeth to inject their toxin. Poisonous organisms, on the other hand, require their victim to ingest or absorb the toxin.

If you've ever been stung by one, it's like a very painful bee sting.

Okay, sorry........ so why aren't fish ingesting them not being envenomed by the toxins in their spines when being eaten/swallowed?

Alana, stings from the lion fish won't necessarily kill the larger fish that's eat them, repeated multiple stings could or smaller/immature predators could fall victim. It's more of a deterrent. It's like bears going after honey. They want to eat it but it's not worth getting stung trying to eat it. I'm assuming that when the can eat it without the lion fish fighting back their spines become broken/pulverized by the teeth/jaws of what is eating it.

Here's a great little vid spearing the suckers. I'll take my gopro out next time I go spearing to show what I find in the STJ waters.
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=aGsTEt0yBPo

They've been seen at depths of 1000 feet.