Lion fish capture in action!

Pez Maya team is constantly monitoring the reef which opens the range of opportunities to spot the invasive newcomer Pterois volitans (Lionfish). Many of them have been seen and recorded and in February 2010 four specimens were caught!

The first one was caught on the 13^th at a depth of 5m in a dive site called the Gardens; it was living inside an old palm tree. After the dive finished we took a Tupperware from the boat and went down again to try to catch it. Having a successful catching dive, Stu came back to the boat with a small lionfish. The second one was caught on the 17^th at a depth of 12m in a dive site called Oasis; it was seen during an earlier dive so the divers planned the dive to catch it. This time, the lionfish was on a wall and after two tries, Lluvia managed to catch it on the third.

Both lionfish were dissected to see their stomach contents and it was surprising to see that the first one (4.5cm long) had a slippery dick juvenile that it was two thirds the size of the lionfish. The second one (10cm long) only had two small fish inside his belly.

Two more Lionfish were caught on Friday 26th, and one of them had 11 baby fish inside!

The number of lionfish is increasing and eradication of marine invasive species have shown little success, nevertheless it is worth to keep on with this kind of action all along the reef and make people aware and encourage them to participate to help to control the number of lionfish in the Caribbean.

Lion fish capture in action!