[Coral-List] mutton snapper eats lionfish in Roatan

[Rom Lipcius]

Does anyone know if eating whole lionfish with the poison glands intact, as the snapper did in the video, is eventually toxic to the predator? 

______________________________________________________

Romuald N. Lipcius
Professor of Marine Science
Virginia Institute of Marine Science, The College of William & Mary
1208 Greate Road, Gloucester Point, VA 23062
804-684-7330 (office), rom at vims.edu
http://www.vims.edu/fish/faculty/lipcius_rn.html

On Jan 21, 2011, at 2:54 PM, Melanie McField wrote:

> Dear Colleagues,
> 
> Last week I had an amazing dive in Roatan during which a nassau grouper and
> mutton snapper closely followed our fearless lionfish hunter - and the
> mutton snapper actually ended up eating the lionfish (after it was speared
> and offered).  I think this record will increase the number of species that
> are confirmed to consume it.  The video is on Youtube and our new facebook
> site and will soon be on our website (www.healthyreefs.org).  Feel free to
> use the video as needed. The summary information is detailed below the
> links.
> 
> See the video at:
> http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=P3oGVWvt7E0
> 
> We also have it on on facebook and are starting a new suite of activities on
> facebook... so 'friend' us to keep informed about marine conservation
> throughout the MAR.
> 
> This is the link
> http://www.facebook.com/video/video.php?v=104509826290815&saved#!/video/video.php?v=104509826290815&comments
> 
> 
> Mutton Snapper recorded eating a lionfish
> 
> January 12, 2011 West End Wall, Roatan, Honduras
> 
> Location:  16.26905 N   86.60288 W    Depth: 80 ft
> 
> In the linked video you can see licensed lionfish hunter and Healthy Reefs
> Coordinator in Honduras, Ian Drysdale, feed  a  speared (and dead) lionfish
> to a mutton snapper, as an interested nassau grouper looks on.  The video
> was taken by Melanie McField, Director of the Healthy Reefs Initiate. Still
> photos were taken by Marisol Rueda, Healthy Reefs Coordinator in Mexico.   The
> incident occurred about 15 minutes into the dive. The Nassau grouper  began
> following Ian about 5-10 minutes into the dive and the mutton snapper joined
> along shortly after. Both fish seemed particularly interested in following
> Ian and watching the spear keenly.  Spearfishing is banned in HN and the
> fish show no fear of the spear or the divers in general.  In response to the
> lionfish problem authorities are allowing managers like the Roatan Marine
> Park to license certain trained individuals to use special lionfish spears
> to remove lionfish from the reef inside and outside the Roatan marine park.
> Both fish were approximately 30-40cm length. Dive guides from Roatan also
> report that the following species have been seen consuming speared lionfish:
> groupers (several species), snappers (including mutton and yellowtail)
> spotted and green morays, and grey reef sharks.  Some plan to attempt to
> train the fish to consume live lionfish, as has been reported from Cayman.
> -- 
> Melanie McField, PhD
> Director, Healthy Reefs for Healthy People Initiative, Smithsonian
> Institution
> 1755 Coney Dr, Belize City, Belize, Central America
> tel 501-223-4898   cell 501-610-4899
> email: mcfield at healthyreefs.org  www.healthyreefs.org
> 
> Join the International Society for Reef Studies
> www.fit.edu/isrs/
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