• What do you do when you have too many lionfish?

    by
    melev
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    Published on 08-10-2010 10:59 PM
    8 Comments Comments
    "Eat them!" is the answer this article points out. It turns out they are very tasty, and some are hoping that if man will start consuming these predators from the Atlantic coastline, their numbers will dwindle. They don't belong there at all.

    http://www.msnbc.msn.com/id/38632799...s-environment/

    Some have turned it into a contest - The Lionfish Derby & Rodeo: http://www.lionfishderby.com/



    Years ago, these were only kept by hobbyists for their beauty. Who would have thought one day we'd have to worry there would be too many to the point that we need help reigning in their population? I'm going to Florida later this month, and I'll have to find a restaurant serving them to see for myself how they taste.
    Comments 8 Comments
    1. timmybenz's Avatar
      timmybenz - 08-14-2010, 08:07 AM
      I was diving in Jamacia last month and could not belive how many lionfish I saw. We found at least 2 on every dive and on one dive we saw 10. Some were only a few inchs big and others had to be about a foot long
      Reply
    1. MarcG's Avatar
      MarcG - 08-15-2010, 09:30 AM
      I was just in Jamaica too! We saw a few just off the shore of the Sandals resort and then a few more in Grand Cayman when we went Snuba diving. If I'm not mistaken I thought that they weren't native to the Caribbean. I've heard that people have released them down there and they have started to "take over." Not sure if that's true but it seems that they are growing in numbers
      Reply
    1. T5FL's Avatar
      T5FL - 08-26-2010, 05:55 PM
      I live in Florida and this topic is on the news here and there, its definitely a problem. No restaurants ive heard of are serving them. Its your standard grouper, mahi mahi, and yellow tail snapper.
      Reply
    1. melev's Avatar
      melev - 09-07-2010, 07:20 PM
      Well, I didn't get to dine on any, but Matthew Pederson, MASNA Award Winner 2009 did his part. I can't imagine ever trying this!

      Reply
    1. mpedersen's Avatar
      mpedersen - 09-07-2010, 08:03 PM
      NICE Marc! Terrifying even though I've lipped hundreds of other fish. NONE were "venemous"! Witt made me do it.
      Reply
    1. melev's Avatar
      melev - 09-15-2010, 01:11 AM
      Looks like Matt's had some help recently. More than 500 were captured in a Lionfish Derby:

      http://cbs4.com/local/keys.lionfish.reef.2.1908517.html
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    1. fish42002's Avatar
      fish42002 - 10-17-2010, 07:37 PM
      It doesn't look like it would taste that good. My guess would be they would be expensive to harvest making restaurants stay with the more popular and more commercially caught fish. How would you catch them? Do they swim in schools? I thought they stayed to themselves.
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    1. NightShade's Avatar
      NightShade - 10-17-2010, 11:23 PM
      I believe that most of the time you have to dive and selectively catch the fish, but I know that outside of the US there are a lot of places that would likely enjoy the increased income that catching the fish would bring. There are also more upscale restaurants that like picking up the weird and different, I know of one that only deals with wild game meat, lion steaks, moose burgers, etc. Lionfish and other types of fish would likely be no different.

      I will probably be going to Jamaica within the next year or so and have thought of ways that I could catch them and bring them back to sell. If the can be caught live they would probably be worth more that way, which is another option for the wild ones that don't belong.
      Reply