St. George's Caye PO Box 1234 Belize City , Belize ph: 011 (501) 223-3022 fax: 011 (501) 223-7007 alt: 011 (501) 671-3483 linda @ecomarbe lize .org

Home（https://ecomarbelize.org/home）

Adopt A Beach（https://ecomarbelize.org/adopt_a_beach） Beaches Adopted（https://ecomarbelize.org/adopt_a_beach/beaches_adopted）

Adopt A Reef（https://ecomarbelize.org/adopt_a_reef）

Coral Watch（https://ecomarbelize.org/coral_watch） MAR Coral Watch（https://ecomarbelize.org/coral_watch/mar_coral_watch）

Belize Coral Reef Watch（https://ecomarbelize.org/coral_watch/belize_coral_reef_watch）

Coral Network（https://ecomarbelize.org/coral_watch/coral_network）

Coral Watch FAQs（https://ecomarbelize.org/coral_watch/coral_watch_faqs）

Participating Organizations（https://ecomarbelize.org/coral_watch/participating_organizations）

Lionfish（https://ecomarbelize.org/lionfish） COMPACT Lionfish Project（https://ecomarbelize.org/lionfish/compact_lionfish_project）

GCFI Fishermen Exchange Program（https://ecomarbelize.org/lionfish/gcfi_fishermen_exchange_program）

Caribbean Strategies（https://ecomarbelize.org/lionfish/caribbean_strategies）

Reef Rally!（https://ecomarbelize.org/reef_rally-1）

St. George's Caye（https://ecomarbelize.org/st_georges_caye） Archaeology Project（https://ecomarbelize.org/st_georges_caye/archaeology_project）

Turtle Watch（https://ecomarbelize.org/turtle_watch） Photo ID（https://ecomarbelize.org/turtle_watch/photo_id）

Submit Report（https://ecomarbelize.org/submit_report） Coral Watch!（https://ecomarbelize.org/submit_report/coral_watch）

Turtle Census In-Water（https://ecomarbelize.org/submit_report/turtle_census_in-water）

Turtle Census Nesting（https://ecomarbelize.org/submit_report/turtle_census_nesting）

Videos（https://ecomarbelize.org/videos）

Volunteerism（https://ecomarbelize.org/volunteerism）

Publications（https://ecomarbelize.org/publications）

Links（https://ecomarbelize.org/links）

Contact Us（https://ecomarbelize.org/contact_us）

Caribbean Management Strategies for Lionfish

In March 20110 Master's student Andrew Sellers posed a question to members of the Gulf & Caribbean Fisheries Institute's（http://gcfi.org/index.php）List-serv e r . He asked if anyone was studying effectiveness of removal efforts of lionfish in the Caribbean. M any persons involved in managing the invasive/introduced lionfish in the Caribbean responded with reports summarizing management activities in their respective countries. This sharing of knowledge from members is exemplary and we thought we would summarize for your review reports presented by each country. Countries added on afterwards include Belize, we hope others will contribute and provide updates as they become available. Countries are listed alphabetically. If you see your post here please send us your logos or photos from the field!

Belize

Efforts underway in Belize are similar to those undertaken in many other Caribbean nations. In Dec 2008 the first lionfish of the invasion was observed on the east side of Turneffe Atoll near Calabash Caye. This same month ECOMAR and the Belize Fisheries Department launched a "Wanted: Lionfish Dead or Alive" poster. From January through March Lionfish Toolkits which included fact sheets, posters and dip nets were distributed to dive resorts on the atolls where the lionfish were first being observed. Thus the Belize Lionfish Project（https://ecomarbelize.org/lionfish）began.

In early 2009 members of the Belize National Coral Reef Monitoring Network held meetings to discuss the invasive lionfish. ECOMAR liased with the Coastal Zone Management Authority and Institute and other members of the Coral Network with support from the Belize Fisheries Department and received funding from COMPACT - the Community Management of Protected Areas for Conservation Programme - which is funded through the the United Nations Small Grants Program and the United Nations Foundations. The focus of COMPACT is to preserve the Belize Barrier Reef Reserve System World Heritage Site. The enhanced COMPACT Lionfish Project（https://ecomarbelize.org/lionfish/compact_lionfish_project） enabled ECOMAR to conduct outreach to a wider audience to carry out more activities.

Through 2009 the numbers of lionfish steadily increased. In July 2009 the Belize Fisheries Department partnered with a local business and offered a bounty of US $25 per lionfish turned in to them. By the first week of August the Fisheries Department was bombarded with lionfish and discontinued the program. The received 100 lionfish and prepared the Draft Lionfish Management Plan.

From December through March ECOMAR launched a monthly lionfish tournament in Belize City for fishermen and awarded prizes to those who brought in the most. In Jan 2010 the COMPACT funding came through and new goals and activties were begun including:

education campaign via print, radio, talk shows & PSA

monthly lionfish tournament with weigh stations throughout Belize

lionfish tournaments with cooking contests

scientific analysis - measurements, gut content analysis, dna

More than 8300 lionfish were received by ECOMAR and the weigh stations. ECOMAR partnered with the United States Geological Survey in Nov 2009 and sent 70 samples from the early lionfish arrivals for analysis.

In Feb 2010 ECOMAR submitted a proposal to the Gulf & Caribbean Fisheries SGF 2010 for the Belize Bahamas Fishermen Exchange（https://ecomarbelize.org/lionfish_project/gcfi_fishermen_exchange_program） that would provide an opportunity for 6 persons to travel from Belize to the Bahamas to learn how this country was managing lionfish. A representative from the Belize Fisheries Department, ECOMAR and 4 fishermen representing the fishing cooperatives traveled to the Bahamas for 5 days. They visited fishermen at fish markets, fishing coops, fisheries personnel, reef sites and hunted lionfish, which all culminated in cooking and tasting of lionfish at their Agriculture Fair.

This project is wrapping up now and the second phase will continue to promote the new Lionfish Fishery, and analyze all the samples stored. Many prey were found and these need to be identified. We are working with dedicated volunteers who will assist in sorting and identifying the samples and soon hope to collaborate with students who are from Belize but studying in Cozumel, Mexico.

In response to Andrew's question, does removal from areas make a difference? Yes, we have interviewed dive guides and many have stated that if business is slow, or they do not remove lionfish they do become abundant. To promote the removal of lionfish from dive sites ECOMAR has launched the Adopt A Reef（https://ecomarbelize.org/adopt_a_reef）campaign and encourages dive resorts and guide to select the healthiest reef they visit regularly and keep this area clean of lionfish. The Adopt A Reef program also includes the Coral Watch program whereby we are encouraging dive guides to submit reports on coral bleaching to id resilient reefs. The goal here will be to have resilient reefs with no lionfish as stresses to reef ecosystems increase.

Linda Searle

ECOMAR

Belize City, Belize

Cayman Islands

My 2 cents worth. I think we all realize we will never eradicate the species from the Caribbean. I think we also all realize, from what we’ve seen so far, that the effects of the invasion will be local annihilation of native reef fish species and the consequent disruption to local coral reef fish ecology as has apparently happened in some locations in the Bahamas.

Our strategy here in the Caymans is to get as many people as possible to remove as many LF as possible as quickly as possible. While we won’t be able to impact their population deeper than say 130ft., I truly believe we can have some positive impact in the shallow reef areas, even if it is just in the marine parks. To re-iterate an earlier sentiment posted: we certainly have managed to fish out many of the native species, so surely with a sustained concerted effort we should be able to take sizable chunks out of the LF population.

I am assuming that documenting the details of the invasion can still be carried out meanwhile, but not everyone will necessarily need to invest the time and resources to do it. If on the other hand removal efforts and documenting the effects of the invasion are exclusive to each other, then that says something.

I do realize the effectiveness of any control may depend purely on a matter of scale – while such an effort will unlikely to be successful in Cuba, Bahamas, or even Puerto Rico, I think we stand a greater chance of some measure of success here in the Cayman Islands, given our very narrow shallow water shelf area, and of course, our determination to at least try to do something about it.

Finally, the Nassau grouper will help us out, providing we give them half a chance. Please sign the petition. Thanks!

Phillippe G. Bush

Secretary, Marine Conservation Board

Dept. of Environment, Cayman Islands Government

CI Environmental Center, 580 North Sound Road GT

P.O. Box 486GT (KY1-1106)

Ph. 345-949-8469

Columbia

Dear Andrew,

Our Foundation ICRI Colombia in Pro of Coral Reefs, has permanent presence in the coral reefs of Capurgana area close to the border with Panama, through the network of scuba diving operators who report to us their observations on the reefs

http://icri-colombia.blogspot.com/2010_06_01_archive.html

In December of 2010, We provided with the help of Professors from the University Nacional, environmental education about the need to catch lion fishes followed by a tasting event of lion fishes prepared by a famous cheff of one of the Hotels of the area. The objective was to enhance the local consumption and to develop the fishery. At the moment, We are advising the National and Regional Governments about the formulation of the fisheries plan and the National Plan for sustainable use of the coral reefs of Capurgana.

Since a local dive site is located right in the border between Colombia and Panama, called La Miel, We also have reports from that area that We are able to share directly to you, by request.

Cordial saludo,

Nohora Galvis CV http://201.234.78.173:8081/cvlac/visualizador/generarCurriculoCv.do?cod_rh=0001261991

Directora Ejecutiva Fundación ICRI (International Coral Reef Initiative) Colombia en Pro de los Arrecifes Coralinos NIT 900244099-0 Calle 97A No. 60D-88 Bogota Emails: nohora_galvis@gmail.com icri.colombia@gmail.com

Grupo de Investigadores para mejorar el Manejo de Arrecifes Coralinos http://201.234.78.173:8080/gruplac/jsp/visualiza/visualizagr.jsp?nro=00000000010268

http://icri-colombia.es.tl/

Punto Focal ICRI para Colombia por la Sociedad Civil Iniciativa Internacional para los Arrecifes Coralinos

http://iyor.org/focalpoints/countries/colombia/default.asp

Curacao & Bonaire

Both on Curacao and Bonaire, two of the Dutch Caribbean islands, lionfish were first reported in late Oct. 2009. On both islands the first reaction was to have divers report sightings so a small group of volunteers could go out to catch them. Both islands had a prohibition on spearfishing and were very cautious about promoting the killing of lionfish. After about a year of this it was realized on both islands that this approach was not working. The small group of volunteers simply could not cope with the ever increasing number of sightings, while on Curacao the lack of a dedicated marine park management organization made things even worse. Bonaire then decided to license one particular type of lionfish eradication tool and distributed these to a large number of frequent divers and dive operators with a contract that those divers would kill all lionfish on sight. Three months later I hear that divers from Curacao visiting Bonaire are astounded by the much lower lionfish numbers on Bonaire in comparision with Curacao. Curacao has now also decided to start up a similar system of distrbuting lionfish eradication tools to a large number of divers.

It appears that this approach is working on small islands where the number of aware and motivated divers is high, within a realitvely narrrow reef area, that is easily accesible everywhere, and divesites are frequently visited, though serious research is needed to verify that the anecdotal reports reflect a real effect. As long as there are indications that these efforts (which do not require that many resources and are usually not experienced as effort but as fun by the divers involved) may be working at least to some extent, I believe we should not be too dismissive of eradication efforts.

Best,

Paul C. Hoetjes

Policy Coordinator Nature

Ministry of Economic Affairs, Agriculture & Innovation (EL&I)

.................................................................................

National Office for the Caribbean Netherlands

Kaya International z/n | Kralendijk | Bonaire | Caribisch Nederland

Postbus 357 | Kralendijk | Bonaire | Caribisch Nederland

........................................................................

T (+599) 715 83 08

M (+599) 701 90 94 F (+599) 717 83 30 paul.hoetjes@rijksdienstcn.com

http://www.rijksdienstcn.com

Guadeloupe (French West Indies)

Hi Andrew,

Herre in Guadeloupe (French West Indies), we are just starting to deal with the lionfish arrival. The first one was reported in Saint Martin in august 2010.

A web was organized to sight and report lionfish seen to send divers to catch it.

The local environmental public agency is wondering how to promote the lionfish as a commercial species to push fishermen to hunt it. But we still wondering if there is no ciguatera risk with it here in Guadeloupe and some tests would have to be done before.

So we do not by now have any data about effectiveness of our removal effort.

Best regards

Julien CHALIFOUR

Honduras - Utila

Here on Utila (Honduras), the Utila Centre for Marine Ecology (UCME) has been running the islands LF awareness and control programme since they arrived in July 2009.