[Coral-List] Lion fish consumption

[Katherine Cure]

The experience is otherwise elsewhere in Belize.
This week at Half Moon Caye wall in Lighthouse Reef, we had a barracuda and
Nassau grouper following divers for the duration of the 60 minute dive,
snapping at spears once lionfish were dead. It was actually a bit disturbing
to see barracudas getting so close and being fearless, to the point of
biting at my spear even when no lionfish were there.

I believe although it is excellent news that something is eating lionfish
(at least after speared by humans) we need to reassess how this is handled,
before we end up creating another fish feeding scenario, especially when
barracudas are involved.

Katherine Cure

On Fri, May 20, 2011 at 11:01 PM, Belize Marine TREC <trec at hotmail.com>wrote:

>
> We have been spearing Lionfish almost daily since last year in Belize.
> We have offered them to snapper, grouper and morays and have
> had no success in getting these fish to consume them.  When left
> on the bottom wrasses pick at them.  That is our experience so far.
> Also, our limited stomach content analysis has revealed only shrimp.
> KC Mattes
> www.BelizeMarineTREC.com
>
>
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Katherine Cure
Field Coordinator and Coral Reef Biologist
Oceanic Society
Blackbird Caye, Turneffe Atoll
Belize