Caribbean Management Strategies for Lionfish - 2011
In March 2011 Master's student Andrew Sellers posed a question to members of the Gulf & Caribbean Fisheries Institute's List-server. He asked if anyone was studying effectiveness of removal efforts of lionfish in the Caribbean. Many 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
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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
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
Colombia
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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
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,
Here 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
Here 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. As of March 2010 the Honduran Government legally permitted UCME to coordinate control efforts and provide permits for registered Hawaiian slings to dive centres willing to assist in our control programme. A massive step to supporting our control efforts.
Our current programme involves providing legally registered Hawaiian slings to dive centres whose dive personnel (DMTs, DMs and Instructors) are trained on how to use the slings to help control LF.
The advantage Utila has is that it’s a small island at 6km by 4km and has permanently secured dive buoys at intervals around its fringing reefs. As we are able to dive almost 360 degrees around the island we have been able to install a philosophy among dive centres that by keeping Utila’s fringing reefs as free of lionfish as much as possible, and to within recreation dive limits, then it at least we are providing some sort of safe haven for native fish to continue doing what they would normally be doing in the absence of LF. In our situation scale is most definitely a factor when considering investing time and resources.
While the dive centres are out diving they carry the slings with them on a regular basis, so there is no major investment in time or resources outside the standard diving practices of the dive shops.
Part of our programme involves the dive centres being our eyes in the water and as a prerequisite for using the spears they are required to fill in simple data sheets with information on sightings and captures of LF around Utila. This enables us to keep track of their distribution and size around the island. To date we have had some reasonable success with programme in as much as we have removed over half as many LF that have been reported sighted. People who have been diving in other areas around the Mesoamerican Barrier Reef have commented that the frequency of lionfish encounters around Utila is significantly (although arbitrarily) less, plus they are smaller in size to what they have seen in other areas. Unfortunately proving this scientifically is not yet feasible until we have a larger dataset to work with.
As in other parts of the Caribbean, many of our native species are now quite accustomed to eating LF, as they are frequently presented with ones caught by divers. It is worth stating for those that are against this practice that divers regularly come across the same individual fish most notably Nassau groupers, Mutton snappers and Queen triggerfish week in week out who are keen to eat the leftovers of our LF spearing activities. Queen triggerfish are of particular interest as we had our first credible report of an individual, which is known to a number of divers actively hunting, catching and a live lionfish. Something that bodes well for the future.
We have accepted that eradication is impossible, but we still remain positive here on Utila that are efforts will contribute to conserving our already impacted coral reefs.
Cheers
Andrzej Narozanski
Utila Centre for Marine Ecology
Our current programme involves providing legally registered Hawaiian slings to dive centres whose dive personnel (DMTs, DMs and Instructors) are trained on how to use the slings to help control LF.
The advantage Utila has is that it’s a small island at 6km by 4km and has permanently secured dive buoys at intervals around its fringing reefs. As we are able to dive almost 360 degrees around the island we have been able to install a philosophy among dive centres that by keeping Utila’s fringing reefs as free of lionfish as much as possible, and to within recreation dive limits, then it at least we are providing some sort of safe haven for native fish to continue doing what they would normally be doing in the absence of LF. In our situation scale is most definitely a factor when considering investing time and resources.
While the dive centres are out diving they carry the slings with them on a regular basis, so there is no major investment in time or resources outside the standard diving practices of the dive shops.
Part of our programme involves the dive centres being our eyes in the water and as a prerequisite for using the spears they are required to fill in simple data sheets with information on sightings and captures of LF around Utila. This enables us to keep track of their distribution and size around the island. To date we have had some reasonable success with programme in as much as we have removed over half as many LF that have been reported sighted. People who have been diving in other areas around the Mesoamerican Barrier Reef have commented that the frequency of lionfish encounters around Utila is significantly (although arbitrarily) less, plus they are smaller in size to what they have seen in other areas. Unfortunately proving this scientifically is not yet feasible until we have a larger dataset to work with.
As in other parts of the Caribbean, many of our native species are now quite accustomed to eating LF, as they are frequently presented with ones caught by divers. It is worth stating for those that are against this practice that divers regularly come across the same individual fish most notably Nassau groupers, Mutton snappers and Queen triggerfish week in week out who are keen to eat the leftovers of our LF spearing activities. Queen triggerfish are of particular interest as we had our first credible report of an individual, which is known to a number of divers actively hunting, catching and a live lionfish. Something that bodes well for the future.
We have accepted that eradication is impossible, but we still remain positive here on Utila that are efforts will contribute to conserving our already impacted coral reefs.
Cheers
Andrzej Narozanski
Utila Centre for Marine Ecology
Jamaica
Here in Jamaica they first arrived in mid 2007 and by the end of 2009 had spread completely around the island, the third largest in the Caribbean. We have a small project since 2010 based at the Discovery Bay Marine Lab in St. Ann parish, in the centre of the north coast, to study the distribution, population structure, diet and other aspects of the lionfish populations here. They feed heavily on gobies and bleenies it appears but this is a preliminary finding.
One thing for sure is that they are here for the immediate future and are well established. In my view we cannot easily "eradicate them" as the larvae continually arrive here in waters flowing south from the eastern Bahamas. Densities is some places here are very high. With our already heavily overfished reefs, the lionfish is yet another complicating factor. One deliberate strategy that we have embarked on is to promote them as a new fisheries resource. There have been several tv programmes also instructing on their safe handling and preparation. In the last couple of months they have appeared on the menu of several popular restaurants and they are becoming popular islandwide. They have a great flavour being piscivores (I've had them and they're great) and we have no ciguatera history here. Incidentally, some of the lionfish here are quite stocky and robust-bodied and yielded good fillets that more than easily feed a hungry adult much more a 6 year old. We find them in fish traps but most are taken with spears. More anon.
KAA.
Karl A. Aiken PhD
Snr. Lecturer, Dept. of Life Sciences,
University of the West Indies, Mona Campus,
Kingston 7, Jamaica, West Indies.
Tel. office: 1-876-927-1202
Fax office: 1-876-977-1075
One thing for sure is that they are here for the immediate future and are well established. In my view we cannot easily "eradicate them" as the larvae continually arrive here in waters flowing south from the eastern Bahamas. Densities is some places here are very high. With our already heavily overfished reefs, the lionfish is yet another complicating factor. One deliberate strategy that we have embarked on is to promote them as a new fisheries resource. There have been several tv programmes also instructing on their safe handling and preparation. In the last couple of months they have appeared on the menu of several popular restaurants and they are becoming popular islandwide. They have a great flavour being piscivores (I've had them and they're great) and we have no ciguatera history here. Incidentally, some of the lionfish here are quite stocky and robust-bodied and yielded good fillets that more than easily feed a hungry adult much more a 6 year old. We find them in fish traps but most are taken with spears. More anon.
KAA.
Karl A. Aiken PhD
Snr. Lecturer, Dept. of Life Sciences,
University of the West Indies, Mona Campus,
Kingston 7, Jamaica, West Indies.
Tel. office: 1-876-927-1202
Fax office: 1-876-977-1075
Mexico
The collaboration of fishermen here in the southern Gulf of Mexico, specifically in the Alacranes Reef off the northern Yucatan Peninsula (Mexico), regarding lionfish removal is moving forward. It is clear to me that it is practically impossible to remove the lionfish because the depth distribution range; however, making the fishermen feeling part of survey efforts is important. Lobster fishermen (divers) are keen to collaborate for catching lionfish and recording basic data from capture site (depth, coordinates, bottom type) after having received instructional talks. The idea of this is building capacity efforts to obtain the support of people that is in the ocean in a daily basis for having an idea of the invasion progress in the Alacranes Reef. Community collaboration is vital to illustrate the lionfish invasion.
Alfonso Aguilar
Alfonso Aguilar-Perera, Ph.D.
Profesor-Investigador Titular B
Departamento de Biología Marina
Facultad de Medicina Veterinaria y Zootecnia
Universidad Autónoma de Yucatán
MÉXICO
Alfonso Aguilar
Alfonso Aguilar-Perera, Ph.D.
Profesor-Investigador Titular B
Departamento de Biología Marina
Facultad de Medicina Veterinaria y Zootecnia
Universidad Autónoma de Yucatán
MÉXICO
Puerto Rico
Hi Andrew (please see attachment):
In Puerto Rico I am part of the effort of controlling the population of lionfish. In the GCFI conference we present the management plan and efforts of Puerto Rico. I don’t agree that Puerto Rico is lost; my every day work is basically working with the lionfish, the dive industry and the fisherman’s.
We all ready have test different methods to control the specie, I can send to you examples of the tools we understand work better. I agree with the people of the USVI, we can control the population, and is not a waste of resources.
The problem with the control like the area of Parguera where the Marine Science Department is, Is that we have studies that let the animal in the water - so they can study the damage. So you cant control the population, it grow exponential and use the mangrove, sea grass and coral reef areas. After that point no control can be establish without a massive effort during a long time period.
We all ready control the number of organism and the size in 4 localities in Puerto Rico. (see attach document)
Parguerra is one of this places that universities have establish no take zones so they can studies & document the effects of the invasion in detail. Like Bahamas and other areas that some one decides to do this, they lost the control of the reef because they have the lionfish working 24/7 with no control, so they can study the damages. If you use the fallowing coordinates in Google maps you can see the nursery areas for lionfish in la Parguerra.
17 56.29740 -67 02.29920
17 56.54280 -67 00.61320
17 56.45220 -67 04.72440
17 56.50260 -67 03.40680
Al these areas help to keep introduccion more and more lionfish in the areas and is impossible to control the specie. That the reasons some people in these geographic part of Puerto Rico establish that is impossible to control the population.
If you want we can establish a web conference using skype (jmelendezgmt / jmelendez@prxtreme.com) & can provide to you examples of the tools we are using & the methodology.
I suggest to you don’t let anyone make an study in Panama if the fish is not remove the same day of the study. If you keep the fish in the area you lose the area. Is very simple and we have a lot of examples along the Caribbean. With the fishermasn and dive industry we are focusing this year in every are in Puerto Rico that we know some one have a no take zone study, and we are cleaning the places.
I dont know if you use GIS, but if you use the simple rule not in my backyard and every one (dive shops, fisherman, water sports, snorkelers) keep there are clean, we control the population.
So our massage is keeping your area clean, you save the reef –
Your backyard will intersect other backyard, and that Intersect will help to reduce the population.
Thanks
Joel Melendez
Ecotono, Inc.
www.caribbeanlionfish.org
In Puerto Rico I am part of the effort of controlling the population of lionfish. In the GCFI conference we present the management plan and efforts of Puerto Rico. I don’t agree that Puerto Rico is lost; my every day work is basically working with the lionfish, the dive industry and the fisherman’s.
We all ready have test different methods to control the specie, I can send to you examples of the tools we understand work better. I agree with the people of the USVI, we can control the population, and is not a waste of resources.
The problem with the control like the area of Parguera where the Marine Science Department is, Is that we have studies that let the animal in the water - so they can study the damage. So you cant control the population, it grow exponential and use the mangrove, sea grass and coral reef areas. After that point no control can be establish without a massive effort during a long time period.
We all ready control the number of organism and the size in 4 localities in Puerto Rico. (see attach document)
- Añasco - there is restaurant that sells the Lionfish as food (El Fogon de la Curva) - so the owner is a fisherman and his areas are clean. Now he is moving to other areas to find fishes.
- Fajardo - With the help of one dive stores (Sea Ventures) - we all ready proof the use of the pole spear and ornamental fisherman tools (modified nets) as an effective way to control the lionfish. In the beginning of August we have from 10 to 15 lionfish (size 7 to 12 inches) per dive of 30 minutes. Now we have 1 per dive of 30 minutes every 3 weeks (size of 3 to 4 inches).
- Humacao - The same dive store (Sea Ventures) - (1 dive per week) We have 4 reef areas in Humacao - In August was the place with the more quantities (15 to 20 in a 30 minutes dive) of lionfish and the biggest size in the east of the Island (12 to 15 inches). Now using only pole spears we found only 1 or 2 per dive (size 3 to 5 inches)
- San Juan - 2 dive stores working in this area (Caribbean Under Water Adventures & Scuba Dogs) - from 3 to 5 lionfish per dive (size 3 to 4 inches) now we don’t see any lionfish in this area so they need to move out of their are to find lionfish.
Parguerra is one of this places that universities have establish no take zones so they can studies & document the effects of the invasion in detail. Like Bahamas and other areas that some one decides to do this, they lost the control of the reef because they have the lionfish working 24/7 with no control, so they can study the damages. If you use the fallowing coordinates in Google maps you can see the nursery areas for lionfish in la Parguerra.
17 56.29740 -67 02.29920
17 56.54280 -67 00.61320
17 56.45220 -67 04.72440
17 56.50260 -67 03.40680
Al these areas help to keep introduccion more and more lionfish in the areas and is impossible to control the specie. That the reasons some people in these geographic part of Puerto Rico establish that is impossible to control the population.
If you want we can establish a web conference using skype (jmelendezgmt / jmelendez@prxtreme.com) & can provide to you examples of the tools we are using & the methodology.
I suggest to you don’t let anyone make an study in Panama if the fish is not remove the same day of the study. If you keep the fish in the area you lose the area. Is very simple and we have a lot of examples along the Caribbean. With the fishermasn and dive industry we are focusing this year in every are in Puerto Rico that we know some one have a no take zone study, and we are cleaning the places.
I dont know if you use GIS, but if you use the simple rule not in my backyard and every one (dive shops, fisherman, water sports, snorkelers) keep there are clean, we control the population.
So our massage is keeping your area clean, you save the reef –
Your backyard will intersect other backyard, and that Intersect will help to reduce the population.
Thanks
Joel Melendez
Ecotono, Inc.
www.caribbeanlionfish.org
Panama
As part of my MSc thesis I am starting a research project on the lionfish invasion in Panama. My project will include (1) an asessment of the predatory impacts of the lionfish on the local reef fish community, (2) a study of the parasitology of the liofish, and (3) an evaluation of the effectiveness of local removal efforts. I have not seen any reports on the effectiveness of removal efforts, and wanted to know if this type of study is being done anywhere else in the Caribbean.
Thank you in advance for all information provided.
Andrew Sellers
Thank you in advance for all information provided.
Andrew Sellers
St. Lucia
The Department of Fisheries with support from the ‘Mitigating the Threat of Invasive Alien Species in the Insular Caribbean Project’ will be hosting a National Marine Invasive Species- Lionfish Stakeholder Workshop on Monday 28 and Tuesday 29 March, 2011 at the Department of Fisheries Conference Room in Castries.
The purpose of the workshop is to engage stakeholders in a proactive approach to mitigate the threat of marine invasive species; particularly the Indo-Pacific Lionfish (Pterois volitans), which poses an immediate threat to Saint Lucia. The invasion of the lionfish in the Northeastern Atlantic and Caribbean is the most rapid marine finfish invasions to date. The lionfish is a venomous fish and poses a threat human and environmental health.
The workshops will entail presentations and demonstrations including the following:
The purpose of the workshop is to engage stakeholders in a proactive approach to mitigate the threat of marine invasive species; particularly the Indo-Pacific Lionfish (Pterois volitans), which poses an immediate threat to Saint Lucia. The invasion of the lionfish in the Northeastern Atlantic and Caribbean is the most rapid marine finfish invasions to date. The lionfish is a venomous fish and poses a threat human and environmental health.
The workshops will entail presentations and demonstrations including the following:
- Overview of the life history of the marine invasive species the Indo-Pacific Lionfish
- Human and environmental health concerns; including treatment of Indo-Pacific Lionfish venom.
- Preparation and culinary potential of the Indo-Pacific lionfish for human consumption.
- Surveying, handling and shipping procedures for the Indo-Pacific lionfish.
- Development of response strategy for the invasion of the lionfish and other marine invasive species into Saint Lucia.
United States Virgin Islands - St. John
We have developed a lionfish management program here in the Virgin Islands. I disagree with Walter as our program works and relies on sighting calls. Turks and Caicos was out of control before the program started as was others. Areas where they are just starting to see lionfish may stand a chance to get ahead of the invasion, at least in shallow reef areas. GCFI has published our presentation from the last conference held in Puerto Rico. Our program draws on the resources in the community. Whether it is fisherman, divers, or even visiting tourists just snorkeling. The key is awareness. We have printed posters and rack cards and distributed them to all dive shops, resorts, charter boats, and local businesses. Also providing the fish markers for people to use. This is all provided free of charge by us, The CORE Foundation. Coupled with systematic dive searches in areas that are not consistently dove or snorkeled we can stay on top of our reefs. This is all done with volunteers. Being that the lionfish can exist so deep we will always have them but we may be able to keep them out of important fish nurseries and prominent reefs,
Karl Pytlik
St John Coordinator USVI
The CORE Foundation
340-201-2342
nolionfishstj@yahoo.com
Karl Pytlik
St John Coordinator USVI
The CORE Foundation
340-201-2342
nolionfishstj@yahoo.com
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