TravelTalkOnline Forums Travel and Vacation Forums Cayman Islands Lion fish

Just got back from a week in the Caymans, stayed at a villa about a mile from Rum Point. We were shocked how many lion fish we saw. There were 6 on the reef at Old Mans Bay. Just wondered if anyone is trying to capture/kill these voracious eaters who have no natural predators. No one seemed interested while we were there.

Yes, the Caymanians are well aware of their presence. A friend of ours who has a house on Cayman Brac has some sort of "license" granted by the government to kill as many as he can, so I assume there are many others who live there who are doing the same <img src="http://www.traveltalkonline.com/forums/images/graemlins/Thumbsup.gif" alt="" />

Yes - in fact dive shops are hosting Lion Fish roundups, then cooking the little buggers for a tasty picnic after. Restaurants are buying LF to put on the daily menu and at least one grocer is selling them. I've heard, through the grapevine, some divers just dispatch them with a knife when encountered, then feed the remains to the resident fish. The hope is eventually the LF will be recognized as food to the indigenous fish population. Also heard on one of the ABC's that Grouper have been seen taking whole live LF...

from all I have read... they are EXCELLENT eating!
Have not had the pleasure personally... yet!

Was at Ivory Kai today and there was one of those damn things in an abandoned pipe, not 200 yards off shore.

If you had let the dive crew at redsail know that there were 6, they would have gone out and speared them. The Cayman Islands DOE has a lionfish culling group, their facebook page is at http://www.facebook.com/#!/group.php?gid=332798326831&v=wall . Some great photos and discussion there.

I did let them know, yesterday. I was diving with Red Sail today and one of the dive masters (licensed to do so) speared two of them on our dive and planned to take them home to make escovitch with them. He was pretty cool about the whole thing and actually asked all the divers' permission before he even went into the water to do so.

On Travel Channel the other night Mr. Zimmern was in Jamaica and dining on them. Said they were delicious! Just be careful cleaning them, the spines are poisonous and the guy wore gloves while cleaning them.

I was actually responding to the OP, who was asking if anyone was capturing them. The Red Sail folks are taking it very seriously, I'm sure other shops are also, but Red Sail is what I personally had experience with. My understanding is that they're not supposed to spear but rather net only when there are divers (clients) in the water, which is probably why they sort of asked around first. If you look at the DOE lionfish project facebook page, Nigel and Debi are catching a ton of them.