[Coral-List] Control of lionfish

Tue May 5 18:24:51 EDT 2009

Regarding those stressed reefs, do lionfish hunt among the branching coral (staghorn-type) thickets on their native reefs? 
Andrew

--- On Wed, 5/6/09, John Ogden <jogden at marine.usf.edu> wrote:

> From: John Ogden <jogden at marine.usf.edu>
> Subject: [Coral-List] Control of lionfish
> To: "Brice Semmens" <Brice.Semmens at noaa.gov>
> Cc: "Coral List" <coral-list at coral.aoml.noaa.gov>
> Date: Wednesday, May 6, 2009, 12:19 AM
> Bruce,
> 
> Good first point and more or less what I meant to say. 
> Let's 
> distinguish control and eradication.  Control (living with)
> lionfish 
> requires knowledge that could be side-tracked by expensive,
> extensive, 
> well-meaning but ultimately futile eradication measures
> (and there are 
> many people thinking this way).  I suggest that the time is
> now to use 
> the event of invasion not just to document but to look at
> what is 
> happening on Caribbean reefs as this invader is
> established.  Surely 
> this will help gather knowledge knowledge useful to
> control.  In my 
> opinion we will be living with lionfish from here on out.
> 
> Cheers.
> 
> Brice Semmens wrote:
> > John,
> >
> > No one doubts mosquitoes are here to stay, yet most
> folk appreciate 
> > control efforts (particularly in your neck of the
> woods!) Efforts 
> > aimed at culling lionfish are principally intended to
> limit impacts to 
> > already stressed reef communities. Put another way,
> the efforts are 
> > only futile if the goal is erradication. I don't
> believe anyone 
> > involved in these (well coordinated) efforts has
> eradication as a goal 
> > at this point. It's also worth noting that any
> rigorous efforts aimed 
> > at identifying lionfish impacts on a whole-reef scale
> should probably 
> > attempt some version of BACI... note the
> 'control' part of BACI.
> >
> > So, the big question -- are you suggesting that folks
> forgo control 
> > efforts in order to focus exclusively on documenting
> the undoubtedly 
> > horrific effects of this invasion? To me that's
> like studying the 
> > wiring diagram of a time bomb that's about to go
> off --  I'd rather 
> > spend my time figuring out how to avoid as much of the
> blast as possible.
> >
> > My two cents.
> > Brice Semmens
> >
> >
> >
> >
> >
> > John Ogden wrote:
> >> Thinking back to the Diadema mass mortality of
> 1983-84 and the 
> >> opportunities that were missed because of poor
> communications across the 
> >> region, now would be a very good time to use our
> superb and ubiquitous 
> >> communications to set up a coordinated observation
> network to see what 
> >> is the impact of lionfish on populations of small
> reef fishes.  It 
> >> appears that this idea could be trumped by
> well-meaning but ultimately 
> >> futile attempts to remove them.  Who doubts that
> they are here to stay?  
> >> It would be best we anticipate the future of
> Caribbean reefs with 
> >> lionfish and try to get some data to help get our
> minds around this.
> >>
> >> Cheers all.
> >>   
> >>> From: Gulf and Caribbean Fisheries Institute
> Network
> >>> [mailto:GCFINET at LISTSERV.TAMU.EDU] On Behalf
> Of Dave Anderson
> >>> Sent: Sunday, May 03, 2009 9:24 PM
> >>> To: GCFINET at LISTSERV.TAMU.EDU
> >>> Subject: [GCFINET] Cayman Islands Lionfish
> Update
> >>>
> >>>  
> >>>
> >>> This message was originally submitted by
> Bradley Johnson
> >>> [mailto:Bradley.Johnson at gov.ky]  to GCFINet. 
> >>>
> >>> Hi all,
> >>>
> >>>  
> >>>
> >>> As of 30th April 2009 we have caught 90
> lionfish! This includes the 2 caught
> >>> in Cayman Brac and Little Cayman in 2008 and 3
> live specimens. They have
> >>> been caught in water ranging from 3' down
> to 110', on all sides of the
> >>> islands, and in all habitats.
> >>>
> >>>  
> >>>
> >>> By island we have: 
> >>>
> >>> Grand Cayman - 44;
> >>>
> >>> Cayman Brac - 8;
> >>>
> >>> Little Cayman - 38. 
> >>>
> >>>  
> >>>
> >>> Cayman Brac was hit by Hurricane Paloma in
> November and sustained severe
> >>> damage to the Island, including their dive
> operations. The sightings have so
> >>> far been primarily from divers, so with
> practically no diving in the Brac we
> >>> are getting fewer reports of lionfish from
> there. We assume this will
> >>> increase once the dive operations reopen.
> >>>
> >>>  
> >>>
> >>> We have licensed approximately 163 divers to
> remove lionfish for us having
> >>> 130 in Grand, 3 in the Brac, and 30 in LC. We
> will increase the number of
> >>> licensed divers in the Brac once they get more
> dive staff back.
> >>>
> >>>  
> >>>
> >>>  
> >>>
> >>> Bradley C. Johnson 
> >>> Research Officer
> >>> Department of Environment
> >>> Cayman Islands Government 
> >>> PO Box 486 
> >>> Grand Cayman  KY1-1106 
> >>> CAYMAN ISLANDS
> >>> 345-949-8469 Office
> >>> 345-244-4168 Direct
> >>> 345-949-4020 Fax 
> >>>
> >>> Website www.doe.ky 
> >>>
> >>>
> >>>
> >>> [Non-text portions of this message have been
> removed]
> >>>
> >>>
> >>>
> >>> ------------------------------------
> >>>
> >>> To Post a message, send it to:  
> campam at eGroups.com
> >>> To Unsubscribe, send a blank message to:
> campam-unsubscribe at eGroups.comYahoo! Groups Links
> >>>
> >>> <*> To visit your group on the web, go
> to:
> >>>     http://groups.yahoo.com/group/campam/
> >>>
> >>> <*> Your email settings:
> >>>     Individual Email | Traditional
> >>>
> >>> <*> To change settings online go to:
> >>>     http://groups.yahoo.com/group/campam/join
> >>>     (Yahoo! ID required)
> >>>
> >>> <*> To change settings via email:
> >>>     mailto:campam-digest at yahoogroups.com 
> >>>     mailto:campam-fullfeatured at yahoogroups.com
> >>>
> >>> <*> To unsubscribe from this group, send
> an email to:
> >>>     campam-unsubscribe at yahoogroups.com
> >>>
> >>> <*> Your use of Yahoo! Groups is subject
> to:
> >>>     http://docs.yahoo.com/info/terms/
> >>>   
> >>>     
> >>
> >>
> >>   
> 
> 
> -- 
> John C. Ogden, Director
> Florida Institute of Oceanography
> Professor of Integrative Biology
> University of South Florida
> 830 First Street South
> St. Petersburg, FL 33701 USA
> Tel. 727-553-1100
> Fax  727-553-1109
> http://www.marine.usf.edu/FIO/
> http://www.cas.usf.edu/biology/Faculty/ogden.html 
> 
> _______________________________________________
> Coral-List mailing list
> Coral-List at coral.aoml.noaa.gov
> http://coral.aoml.noaa.gov/mailman/listinfo/coral-list