[Coral-List] Teaching Mega-Fauna to eat Invasive P. Volitans

David Kerstetter kerstett at nova.edu
Sun Mar 13 17:23:27 EDT 2016


Hello, Damien.

I¹ve avoided wading in here on this topic, but a few minor points to start:
* There¹s a large and important difference between culling lionfish and
leaving them dead on a reef to be scavenged versus actively feeding
predator fishes.  If you¹re not comfortable keeping fish in a bag yourself
(or advocating others to do so), actively feeding speared lionfish to
other fishes is not the only option.
* My experiences with both charter fisheries and dive operators is that
they¹ll generally do anything to increase marketability and sales as long
as it doesn¹t incur any additional risk to their customers.  Thus, if dive
operators are collectively denouncing an activity as dangerous, I¹ll
gladly defer to their expertise.
* No-one has demonstrated a ³learned behavior² in these predatory fishes,
such that they will actively feed on lionfish other than during human
feeding operations, nor do I see any sort of ³teaching² mechanism even
possible.  My experience with the available scientific literature is that
such secondary learning involved with independent hunting has not been
demonstrated in these predatory fishes.
* Finally, it IS possible to hook-and-line lionfish, and the IGFA now has
a current record for the species (and several others pending).  It¹s not
easy, nor do they put up any kind of recreationally exciting fight, but it
is a way that some local folks in South Florida can throw a couple of
lionfish in the fishbox on the way home by stopping on an isolated deep
wreck.  See http://www.miamiherald.com/sports/outdoors/article4958574.html
for more details.

In a larger sense, I find your conflation of anecdotal observations (and
videos) with peer-reviewed science problematic.  When Lad (among others)
provided citations and other information, you seem to have ignored it,
instead offering a list of ³Theories² reads more like a ramble.  If you¹d
like to advocate ‹ as you appear to at one point below ‹ for a ³lionfish
hunting certification² of some sort (presumably including safety training
regarding their handling), then that¹s a completely different matter for
this group to discuss rather than your advocating for feeding lionfish to
aggressive predatory fishes.

Best regards, David

**********

David W. Kerstetter, Ph.D.
Assistant Professor, Halmos College of Natural Sciences & Oceanography
Nova Southeastern University
8000 North Ocean Drive
Dania Beach, FL 33004 USA
(954) 262-3664 office / (804) 854-9030 cell / (954) 262-4098 fax
http://www.nova.edu/ocean/research/labs/kerstetter.html

Associate Editor, North American Journal of Fisheries Management



On 3/12/16, 2:02 PM, "coral-list-bounces at coral.aoml.noaa.gov on behalf of
Damien Beri" <coral-list-bounces at coral.aoml.noaa.gov on behalf of
beridl at g.cofc.edu> wrote:
>Steve,
>
>Thanks for your input.
>
>Here I will propose a series of argument points that seem most critical,
>followed by my conclusion based on what I have heard this far. Thank you
>for your time, please read what I have wrote thoughtfully and fully.
>Please do not skip over parts or sections you don't understand, as each
>aspect and sentence is critical.  If you don't understand something
>please let me know, we all have different ways interpretation.
>
>
>THEORIES
>
>We aren't going to stop people from hunting Lionfish.
>
>Carribean dive industries will not give up spearing Lionfish.
>
>We know average grouper sizes needed for effective biocontrol on Lionfish
>is negligible in the Carribean, as the average size of grouper is 178g
>respectfully, when it needs to be 1000g<
>
>Humans introduced Lionfish; our interaction with them goes beyond,
>"should we hunt them," we are responsible for them.
>
>Lionfish cannot be "fished" for by rod a reel.  They are also the only
>species of fish that people can use diving equipment to hunt, for the
>most part.  This makes your average Joe diver able to effectively hunt,
>kill, and promote predator interactions on a more regular level.
>
>Culling of Lionfish on reefs has shown positive increases in natural
>predation on Lionfish.  I will provide a video in which I prove that
>Groupers, barracuda, and sharks will seek out Lionfish for divers to kill.
>
>Regardless of whether we feed Lionfish to sharks, morays, or groupers,
>the act of hunting the Lionfish has unarguably proven to increase
>dangerous and "scary" interactions with natural predators.  Whether we
>leave the Lionfish dead/injured on the reef, or take it to the surface we
>are seeing increased reports of diver to predator interactions, some
>being dangerous.
>
>If one wants to argue that we should keep Lionfish in a container on a
>dive, than that's by far the most absurd argument there is.  Last year a
>student was dragged to their death by their "Lionfish container."  Why
>would you cover yourself in the smell of dead fish?
>
>The fact of the matter is, we need to implement select regions where dive
>industries and non-profits can make money off of the tourism attractions
>this activity provides.  However, people should be aware of what they are
>going into as we can never fully predict the outcome.  I wouldn't be
>surprised to see companies like PADI begin to offer certifications for
>Lionfish feeding, a two week course seems pretty lucrative.  We need to,
>as a community developed and effective way to manage this activity.
>Perhaps an NGO non-profit that certifies and regulates this activity of
>"predator feeding," while allocating profits to more research on the
>topic, instead of people bashing the idea right away because "your not an
>expert."  The people who I worked with doing this were the ones who
>started it.  By no means are they an expert, but by no means do we have a
>scale to compare this "expertise" to!
>
>I see no scientific study that proves that more dangerous diving
>interactions between predators and divers are a direct result of said
>predators being directly fed by humans.  On the contrary, these
>predators, when stimulated by; smell, spear action, and diver presence,
>actually get more aggressive when they know their is edible, injured fish
>around, and they can't find it because it's mixed in with a group of
>divers inside someone's container or on the end of a spear.
>
>Warm regards,
>
>Damien Beri



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