but it’s gonna be tough
Those things are monsters. Now they even found them in 400-500 feet of water hunting for food.
So, this is a very real problem, let’s look at it logically. based on the article’s observations about predators odor, one solution sounds obvious. GMO! We need to produce Genetically Modified Lionfish that have nasty BO with high testoserone levels! Then release them in the wild to breed stinky generations of lionfish that can’t get close enough to prey fish to make a meal of them. and then they all die off. end of problem. or even a strain without the nasty, toxic spines. then all the other predator fish will soon learn that the new spineless lionfish taste just like chicken.
It could happen. . .
Of course then, the natural comedy of errors will be that the new spineless lionfish will be tranported by tanker bilge water back to their native home waters and debilitate the native strain, so that they will become the next endagered species.
No matter how much we meddle, Darwinian evolution still wins in the long run. Extinction is a tool of evolution.
99% of all species that have ever lived on earth are now extinct. Replaced by the evolving survivors.
Soooo;;; Let’s try to not to get in the way of Darwinian evolution ourselves.
We too are subject to the same rules.
Wow! Isn’t logic great?
What I don’t understand is why dosent the trade take more of these things from the atlantic and less from the pacific? It makes perfect sense and lionfish are always in high demand ! I have heard that they are Actully more expensive coming from the atlantic then the pacific. How dose that make sense?
Also tampering with the inviorment usually has bad effects some of which we don’t see ahead of time . I think removal would be the best and most natural way . But of course would take a long time.
They could have somthing like every lionfish you bring in you get 5$ that way trawl fishermen or people who might bring up a bunch will have an insentive to turn them in so we can monitor fish populations better and divers will be more likely to grabem.
who would pay out the $5 apiece, though???
The government could issue some sort of reward for protecting our ecosystems .
Didn’t they do somthing like that with the snakehead
Paul here is a little addition to your article, there looking into and seeing the destruction of these fish. I think its a small attempt but at least they are tring. From want i’ve heard they are good eating but have not tried it myself.
http://phys.org/news/2014-01-war-lionfish-success.htmlLooks tasty to me bill.
yes, they can make pockets of control, with low numbers of lionfish, but it takes a lot of continuous work to maintain them. once you stop or slow down, they can fill back in the gaps. its like trying to turn back the tide with a bucket. some sort of natural control is needed. perhaps local disease or thingswill eventually knock down their numbers. but right now they are growing into a large food supply. when they run out of food, there will be a big die off. then population booms and busts in cycles. someday they may just fill a niche. and a new balance will be struck.
They should get one of the big fish supplier company’s that sells the microwave fish sticks and get them to take up lionfish as there main supply of white fish meat.
[quote=“billrob71, post:9, topic:7101”]
From want i’ve heard they are good eating but have not tried it myself.[/quote]
I have, they are absolutely delicious, light, flaky, mild, with a nice texture.
I have, they are absolutely delicious, light, flaky, mild, with a nice texture.Mystery Solved we now know what keeps happening to Charlie's Lion Fish supply.