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

[lad akins]

HI Damien,

Please leave the shark feeding to the experts.  

Individual divers offering up their freshly speared catch creates unsafe
conditions for others in the water.   A number of people have been severely
bitten by predators (barracudas, eels, etc) looking for a handout.  It can
also backfire... some locations have stopped lionfish removals due to unsafe
removal conditions, and even worse, divers have taken out some of these
"problem" predators who are just doing what they do naturally. How shameful
is that!

During the annual dive industry lionfish updates at the DEMA show each year
all in attendance agree that the practice of individual divers feeding
lionfish to top predators is to be discouraged and DEMA, REEF, PADI, DAN and
others have agreed that attempting to train predators outside of organized
and well managed feeding at specific sites is not in our best interest.

Otherwise,  keep up the good removals through spearing and bringing those
fish up for dinner.

All the best,

Lad

****************************************************************************
Lad Akins
Director of Special Projects
Reef Environmental Education Foundation (REEF)
P O Box 370246
98300 Overseas Hwy
Key Largo  FL  33037
(305) 942-7333 cell
(305) 852-0030 work
www.REEF.org


-----Original Message-----
From: coral-list-bounces at coral.aoml.noaa.gov
[mailto:coral-list-bounces at coral.aoml.noaa.gov] On Behalf Of Damien Beri
Sent: Wednesday, March 9, 2016 1:59 PM
To: coral-list at coral.aoml.noaa.gov
Subject: [Coral-List] Teaching Mega-Fauna to eat Invasive P. Volitans

Hello my esteemed coral enthusiasts,

Here's a topic for debate,

Ecotourism or Eco-Solution?

As we all know the Lionfish invasion of the Caribbean has severely altered
the feeding structure of the present reefs.   

While some may could find it controversial to work hands on with animals of
these communities to try and develops their taste for this insidious white
meat, I would like to know your thoughts. 

Here is a video where I am directly feeding live Lion Fish to some pretty
massive Black Tips;



https://m.youtube.com/watch?v=0rRTUjldicU



Please let me know your thoughts on the PROs Vs. CONs of this mitigation
method.

Let's make helping the reefs exhilarating!

Warm Regards,

Damien Beri 





Sent from my iPhone
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