The lion fish capture continues....

Hola from Playa del Carmen!

As you have probably been reading during the past weeks, both Pez Maya and Pta Gruesa staff teams have started actively hunting and catching lion fish found on our reefs.

Lion fish have now become a big issue in the Caribbean, and of course the Q Roo coast line. These beautiful, but aggressive fish are an invasive species in our waters, and have an incredible reproductive capacity and an even bigger hunger. That combination can be drastic for the ecology of our reefs.

Until now, we have been advised to use nets to capture the lion fish. Once captured we bring them back to base and dissect them . However, due to the extend of the issue, CONANP (one of our partners and the National Commission of Natural Protected Areas) have now given us permission to use spear guns to hunt and kill as many lion fish as possible.

As you can imagine, none of us like to kill any fish, specially on the reef. However, but we are very aware that only by joining efforts and strategies we, the reef users and lovers, can help control the lion fish population, and hence the future of the beautiful Caribbean reefs.

So if you have any exotic fish in your fish tanks, please be very careful if you are going to dispose them, and always take them to specialized shops - otherwise they might end up in the wrong ocean and cause major problems!

Happy diving and we look forward to seeing you out here soon

Danny (Regional Director)

The lion fish capture continues....