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Lionfish facts
If you’ve visited an aquarium or fish store before, you have
likely admired the beauty of the lionfish, a venomous marine fish originally
found in the Pacific and Indian Oceans.
These red and white striped fish can grow up to 18 inches in length, and
weigh up to 2.9 lbs. They can live
from five to fifteen years. They
prey mostly on small fish, shrimp, mollusks, and anything that can fit into
their mouths.
The lionfish is one deadly fish. Lionfish stings can cause heart failure and death in young
children, elderly individuals, or immune system compromised individuals. Venom from a lion fish spine can cause
extreme pain, nausea, vomiting, fever, breathing difficulties, a drop in blood
pressure, convulsions, dizziness, headache, numbness, heartburn, diarrhea, and
sweating. Due to their venomous
spines, they have very few natural predators.
Lionfish invasion into the Atlantic
Lionfish have become an invasive species in the Atlantic
Oceans. They are not native
to this ecosystem and have decimated many coral reef fish populations,
disrupting the natural balance of the reef. Without many natural predators in the Atlantic, lionfish can
reproduce extremely quickly; one female can produce 2 million eggs a year.
There is some speculation about how the Lionfish entered the
Atlantic Oceans. Many believe that
private aquarium owners introduced the species into the ocean when the fish
grew too big for their home aquariums.
It is also speculated that Hurricane Andrew caused the accidental
release of several lionfish from a damaged aquarium in 1992. Other theories suggest that the
lionfish hitched rides onto large cargo ships traveling between the Pacific and
Atlantic Oceans.
James A. Morris, Jr., a scientist for National Oceanic and
Atmospheric Administration (NOAA) wrote that the lionfish invasion may be “one
of the greatest threats of this century to warm temperate and tropical Atlantic
reefs and associated habitats.”
Lionfish hunting in Costa Maya
Lionfish populations need to be controlled to protect coral
reefs. The most reliable way to
currently catch lionfish is to scuba dive down to where they are located, up to
200 feet or deeper, and shoot them with spears. Traps don’t work well because they tend to catch native fish
in addition to lionfish.
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| The beautiful ocean at Costa Maya |
One
of our ports of call from our cruise trip was
Costa Maya, Mexico. My friend Joe booked a
lionfish hunt for us with Doctor Dive
Costa Maya. They
were very professional and easy to work with. We
arranged a 2 tank dive, for $140 per person, including tip. We
walked from the beach right onto the dive boat where we geared up. The
boat ride was very short, probably less than 20 minutes. Our
first dive was to explore the sea life and corals in the area. We
saw tons of sea life including: barracudas, sea turtles, lobsters, fish, corals
and rock structures.
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| A friendly sea turtle that swam by to get a closer look at us |
Our second dive was the lionfish hunt. Our dive master, Sam, went over the safety precautions of
hunting lionfish with 3 pronged Hawaiian slings. A Hawaiian sling is a basically a pole with a spearhead on
one end and a rubber tube on the other side. To use the sling, one grabs the rubber tube and pulls it
tightly towards the spear head.
Keep your arm straight to aim and simply let go of your grip on the
sling to fire. As the rubber
quickly snaps to contract, it causes the spearhead to propel forward at a high
velocity. One great thing about
hunting with a Hawaiian sling is that if you miss, you can quickly fire off
another shot. We were not allowed
to shoot at any other sea life.
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| Look but don't touch: the dorsal spines are venomous |
Sam frequently emphasized the importance of keeping away from the
venomous spines of the fish. He
even showed us several dark scars on his leg from a previous accidental brush
with poisonous lionfish spines.
Sam instructed us to to get within 1 foot of the lionfish, and aim for
their heads before shooting so that they could be killed instantly.
Our dive master took us to his “secret spot,” an undersea garden
of lionfish, 70-80 feet deep in the ocean. We saw lionfish everywhere, mostly found hanging around rock
structures and caves. Since
lionfish have no natural predators in these oceans, they had absolutely no fear
of us. As we swam up to groups of
lionfish, they didn’t bother swimming away at all. We could get right up to them with our spears, take aim, and
fire.
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| Me and my friend with our catch |
While hunting, Sam made sure that we
were not to handle any lionfish after catching them. After each catch, we would bring the
spear with attached lionfish back to Sam, who would give us a replacement sling. Sam collected the lionfish on a
single spearshaft. This was for our safety, but also gave us more time to
continue the hunt! When we ran low on oxygen, it was time to surface. We caught a total of 17 lionfish
during our dive.
Eating our lionfish catch
Locals are encouraged to help do their part in reducing lionfish
populations: by eating them! The
best part of our experience was eating our fresh catch, right off the beach.
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| Fresh lionfish ceviche and chips |
The cooks at the Yaya Beach restaurant next to Doctor Dive
happily prepared lionfish for us…for free! They took half of the filets and prepared it as fresh
lionfish ceviche. They battered
and fried up the other half of the filets as delicious lionfish fingers for us
to make fresh lionfish tacos. It
felt extremely rewarding to be eating our fresh lionfish catches off the beach, with a cold beer
in hand!
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| Lionfish tacos |
Lionfish filets are very tasty. The meat is light, flakey, and almost has a buttery
taste. I learned later that
lionfish have the highest concentration of omega-3 fatty acids in their
category of fish; more than tilapia, bluefin tuna, red snapper, and
grouper. Eating this delicious
fish was both nutritious and eco-friendly. We enjoyed doing our part in saving the local coral reef
ecosystems.
You can read more about lionfish hunting at the World
Lionfish Hunters Association.
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