Lionfish harvest around the marina docks means ceviche for happy hour

Today the waters around the docks are crystal clear - John from Sailing Cat SUNSATION offers to snorkel around the marina docks and spear Lionfish to clean up the environment.

Hazard to humans

Lionfish are known for their venomous fin rays, a feature that is uncommon among marine fish in the East Coast coral reefs. The potency of their venom makes them excellent predators and poisonous to fishermen and divers. Pterois venom produced negative inotropic and chronotropic effects when tested in both frog and clam hearts and has a depressing effect on rabbit blood pressure. These results are thought to be due to nitric oxide release. In humans, Pterois venom can cause systemic effects such as extreme pain, nausea, vomiting, fever, breathing difficulties, convulsions, dizziness, redness on the affected area, headache, numbness, paresthesia (pins and needles), heartburn, diarrhea, and sweating. Rarely, such stings can cause temporary paralysis of the limbs, heart failure and even death. Fatalities are common in very young children, the elderly, those with a weak immune system or those who are allergic to their venom. Their venom is rarely fatal to healthy humans, but some species have enough venom to produce extreme discomfort for over a period of several days. However, Pterois venom is a danger to allergic victims as they may experience anaphylaxis, a serious and often life threatening condition that requires immediate emergency medical treatment. Severe allergic reactions to Pteroisvenom include chest pain, severe breathing difficulties, a drop in blood pressure, swelling of the tongue, sweating, runny nose, or slurred speech. Such reactions can be fatal if not treated.

Here are today's pixs... (click on image for larger size image)

To every fishing story comes a finish.... Um um good happy hour ceviche... 

Thank you Mary for the ceviche secret recipe preparations: 

The dish is typically made from properly butchered fresh raw fish sliced into small pieces that are then marinated in citrus lime juice along with spices: such as habanero pepper, chopped onions, sea salt, cilantro and finely minced peppers.

Delicious!

No one left happy hour without a very good taste of fresh Lionfish ceviche.

Sub expedition finds invasive lionfish in deep water

Aboard the submersible Antipodes, cruising 250 feet beneath the surface off Fort Lauderdale, scientists peered through violet water and saw exactly what they hoped not to see.

About 15 lionfish — venomous, flamboyantly striped invaders from half a world away — swam around the starboard bow of a freighter sunk as an artificial reef. When the submersible drifted toward the wreck's stern, they counted another 11.

The dive Friday morning was one of a series this week to gauge the extent of the infestation of the non-native fish on the region's reefs, using a vessel donated by OceanGate Inc., which operates submersibles for oil and gas exploration, scientific research, marine engineering and other uses.

Scientists study Lionfish infestation


Submerisible


Submersible

Although lionfish are a well-known threat to the region's reefs, where they consume and compete with native wildlife, most of our knowledge of them comes from observations in shallow water, accessible to divers. The highly publicized lionfish derbies, in which divers spear and catch them for prizes, can't reach lionfish this deep, which suggests that controlling them will be much more difficult.

"The big question has always been what are these things doing at depth?" said David Kerstetter, research scientist atNova Southeastern University's Oceanographic Center, who was on Friday morning's dive. "Earlier dives this week actually saw that. At the shallower depths they really didn't see any lionfish. But what we're seeing is that at depths beyond that accessible by recreational divers, you're finding pretty large concentrations of lionfish."

Native to the Indian and Pacific oceans, lionfish were first reported in Florida in 1985, detected off the coast of Dania Beach. They have since been found throughout the Gulf and up the Atlantic coast. Typically growing about a foot long, they have venomous, needle-like spines for defense, which can cause painful stings that are on rare occasions fatal.

The Antipodes made dives Tuesday through Friday, moving from a depth of about 100 feet to around 265 feet, finding few lionfish at shallow depths and many at greater depths.

"We knew that they were occasionally found deep," Kerstetter said. "Now we're seeing a lot more evidence that they're actually common at depth. They're always going to have this refuge, where they can eat and spawn and do all these other things that lionfish do."

Keith Mille, environmental specialist with the Florida Fish and Wildlife Conservation Commission, who went on the dive Friday, said the abundance of lionfish in deep water indicated that current control efforts can't reach a significant population of them.

"I feel that we were looking at a lionfish population that is not influenced by dive removal efforts," he said.

So do we have any options for dealing with lionfish in 250 feet of water or deeper?

"Really, no," Kerstetter said.