The Friends of the Virgin Islands National Park have two small lionfish in an aquarium in their store in Mongoose Junction. T
They have a permit, according to Tropical Focus' Bob Schlesinger, a Rotary Club member who passed along word of the display exhibit.
Having the fish seen is part of the effort to get the word out so that when the deadly fish is is spotted, it can be captured. There is a dedicated phone line to report sightings.
The Park store provides free markers in the store for people to leave if/when they find the fish while snorkeling. This will help too. Schlesinger says there are plans to get identification kits to dive shops on the island as well as in the welcome baskets of rental villas.
Now, here's a shocker – or at least The Inquiring Iguana was surprised when he found this! Petco sells lionfish! Prices begin at $15 for the Dwarf Zebra Lionfish and go up to $88 for a Black Voltan.
- Wikipedia on Lionfish http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Lionfish
Sounds like catching them and packaging them for resale to Petco could make for a side business.
We just returned from St John. It was helpful to see the Lyon fish at the Friends of the Park Store. We had markers in our welcome basket and had some concerns because of lack of information. The guy at the store explained the habits of the Lyon fish, #’s found so far and locations where they have been found. I carried my markers everywhere and thankfully didn’t need to use one.