As Buchanan and Goodman sang in the ‘50s about flying saucers, “They’re still around.”
But this is no laughing matter, because we’re talking about Lionfish, the scourge of the Caribbean.
This latest example was snared by a visitor, off Hawknest beach. Tom Krall’s nephew spotted the fish and posted on the Sun Times Magazine Facebook page about it.
He watched it while I drove home, dug up my Hawaiian sling (a long pole with a small noose at one end), and ground off the rust. (It hadn't been used in 30 years) … The little beast had moved to 15-feet depth by the time I reached (it). I've been carrying a lionfish marker in my swimsuit for years, but never saw one until last week at Henley Cay (off Turtle Bay), which I marked, and called the hotline.
I was talking to a couple of divers out of Coral Bay that were diving offshore and saw over 100 very large lion fish under ledges. Apparently they speared a couple and fed them to a nurse shark from the end of a spear. Maybe we have a new predator started for the lion fish?
All we can do is stake out a piece of the shoreline and keep it free of lion fish, but more will just keep coming.
Their natural predators are sharks, groupers & octopi. (I worked in the dive industry in Asia, this is a fact) Problem is these guys, in the Caribbean, have never tasted lion fish. What about serving lion fish on the menus? It is done with great success is the Bahamas ans we are starting to see success in the Florida Keys. You will never eradicate them from Caribbean waters, only control them through commercial fishing and giving their natural predators a taste for them.
I think we have to serve them up in restaurants and allow spearfishing with diving tanks.