GOTCHA! Calls mount for regulated spearing of Lionfish

Claudia Gardner, Assignment Coordinator

WESTERN BUREAU:After more than a year of conducting scientific surveys, the Montego Bay Marine Park Trust (MBMPT) has determined that regulated spearfishing is the best solution to rid the park of the pesky Lionfish, which has infiltrated the area over the past few years.

"One of the most effective means of catching Lionfish is spearfishing, which is actually illegal in protected areas, hence, we would have to find alternative means of handling this problem.

"We checked fish pot makers, fishermen, and line fishermen, and we found that the spear fishermen have the greater yield," Joshua Bailey, outreach officer at the MBMPT, told Western Focus on Wednesday.

"What we wanted to do (during the monitoring project) was to find their (Lionfish) practices - what type of fish they eat, their feeding time, when they are regularly seen, where their breeding areas are. Once this was done, we would identify what the best means of catching them are," he added.

He said that so far, the MBMPT has conducted a training programme, which equipped 14 watersports operators and scuba divers with the necessary Lionfish-culling skills. He added that in the creation of the proposed Lionfish-management plan, the MBMPT would "posit suggestions" on how to incorporate spear fishermen.

CURTAILING ABUSE

"Because it is really hard to regulate, and we want to ensure that people don't abuse it and go into the park spearing other kinds of fish, we have to try and regulate it. Hence, if they (spear fishermen) are interested in culling, they would come to the park where they can have access to culling gear and be trained. They are taught how to deal with a person who the fish has venomated, as well as first-aid practices so they are prepared to do the culling.

"They are able to keep the fish, but they have to share certain information with us. The persons who we have reached out to are those who use the park a lot and who come in contact with the Lionfish a lot," he added.

Bailey said another Lionfish-culling workshop would be held later this month and would directly target fisherfolk as there was a strong consumer demand for the fish.

"The easiest solution is to encourage spear, line, and pot fishermen to catch Lionfish - to search for Lionfish like how they would search for a parrot or snapper. They are really very lazy fish so you can go close to them.

"It is a very tasty fish. They don't really get very big, but they get really fat. Once you cut off the spines, it is perfectly safe (for handling and consumption)," Bailey said.

The non-governmental organisation, in collaboration with the Discovery Bay Marine Laboratory (DBML), commenced the scientific Lionfish Monitoring Project in 2012, which was aimed at providing data for creating a management plan to curtail Lionfish invasion within protected areas. The project was conceptualised by former executive director of MBMPT, Brian Zane, and marine biologist Dane Budoo of the DBML and is funded by the Global Environment Facility of the United Nations Development Programme.

VENOMOUS SPINES

A document on the Lionfish, prepared by the University of the West Indies (UWI) in 2011, noted that the creatures, although edible, have venomous spines, which they use to defend themselves from becoming prey to other fish, and which are also capable of inflicting a very painful sting to humans.

"The Lionfish belongs to a group of venomous fishes and is related to the scorpionfish, which are found in Jamaican waters," according to the document. "The Lionfish preys on juvenile fish and shellfish. It is a sit-and-wait predator capable of consuming large quantities of fish and shellfish daily and can negatively impact the fish stocks in a country."

The UWI said the creatures reproduce all year round in the Caribbean and that a female Lionfish is capable of producing two million eggs each year. It noted that the creatures, "for many reasons, were released into the canals and seas and set free after they grew too large for aquariums owned by aquaria enthusiasts, mainly in the United States, who had imported them for their homes and offices. Since then, they have made their way along the East Coast of the US, The Bahamas, Hispaniola, Cuba, Jamaica, and many other countries throughout the Caribbean".

In November last year, members of the Negril scuba-diving fraternity also expressed concerns about the growing number of Lionfish being spotted off the West End coast in the town, and just recently, researchers at the University of North Carolina, announced that Lionfish, which are alien to the Caribbean, were threatening local fish populations and were outeating marine predators such as sharks and barracudas and that "mother nature appears unable to control its impact on local reef fish".