If you Can’t Beat ‘em, Cook ‘em!

So why is a fish that is so beloved in the Pacific the newest Evil Boogeyfish of the Atlantic and Caribbean? Because it breeds at an amazing rate, it eats a large number of tiny reef fish, and it has no natural predators here to keep it in check.

Every month a single Lionfish has the potential to lay 30,000 eggs. If each egg hatches and they also lay 30,000 eggs, you would end up with 8.1 quintillion Lionfish after just three months. Since Lionfish have been known to eat up to 53 juvenile fish before they finish digesting the first, you can imagine how quickly the voracious Lionfish can devastate a reef when no natural predators are there to gobble up a good number of these aggressive ornate guys.

So how do we thin the herd until balance is returned to the reef? 

I would say PADI’s new Invasive Lionfish Tracker Specialty would be a great way to start. The Invasive Lionfish Tracker Specialty class will teach you about the skills and equipment you need to successfully capture, transfer, transport, and euthanize a Lionfish: without incident or injury. And by a surprising coincidence Scuba Emporium’s newest specialty is Invasive Lionfish Tracker. 

Then the only question left is… what do you do with all these tasty, humanely euthanized Lionfish?

I say Eat ‘em Up!

Once you’ve learned to safely deal with the Lionfish’s venomous spines in the your Invasive Lionfish Tracker Specialty class, check out this website to find some great Lionfish Recipies. I think my favorite is the Fluffy Battered Lionfish: maybe the Lionfish Ceviche.

And if you want to learn more about the how the Lionfish is being dealt with in the Caribbean, check out two of our previous posts Shark are Showing their Worth Again and Lionfish, the Beautiful Outlaw.