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Invasive Species Spearfishing & Science Discuss invasive exotic species such as lionfish, carp, snakehead, etc. including news, spearfishing and scientific research in any geographical region. |
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11-12-2013, 09:04 PM | #1 |
Big Time Bug Hunter
Join Date: Apr 2003
Location: Orlando
Posts: 3,097
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Lionfish Blinding test
Went diving today in Jupiter, to test another option for lionfish removal.
At the FWC Lion summit 3 weeks ago they encouraged us to try anything out of the box. I bought a green laser to see if I could blind them. Unfortunately after 5 different tests, my experiment failed miserably. After hitting both eyes with prolonged 10 second beams each and then getting them to flee, they easily and quickly navigated rocks and tunnels to hide. I really hoped they would crash into the rocks like a bad Hellen Keller joke. They didn't even flinch when directly hit. I'll go back to the normal way, but this problem is really bad. I used the Z-Bolt - Scuba 1 green laser for this. Holding a bag of bugs and a harmless laser beam.
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11-15-2013, 01:03 PM | #2 |
Registered User
Join Date: Apr 2013
Posts: 36
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Re: Lionfish Blinding test
thats a great theory
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11-17-2013, 08:07 AM | #3 |
Dan MacMahon
Join Date: Jan 2003
Location: Hudson, Fl
Posts: 1,904
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Re: Lionfish Blinding test
Points for original thinking! You never know until you try!
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If you stay in this sport, and really apply yourself , in 10 years you might be the diver you think you are today. Smart people realize they know very little. Stupid people think they know everything. |
11-18-2013, 05:57 PM | #4 |
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Join Date: Jul 2006
Location: Charleston, SC
Posts: 411
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Re: Lionfish Blinding test
I like your train of thought... What really needs to happen is that scientists need to genetically engineer a defect in the species that only affects lionfish. Man will never be able to touch all of the lionfish. But other lionfish and a decade of breeding can.
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11-18-2013, 11:09 PM | #5 |
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Join Date: Apr 2007
Location: santa cruz
Age: 48
Posts: 5,473
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Re: Lionfish Blinding test
ya, that could never go bad .
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11-19-2013, 12:37 AM | #6 |
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Join Date: Jul 2006
Location: Charleston, SC
Posts: 411
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Re: Lionfish Blinding test
Anything can go bad... Most of our food is genetically modified nowadays...
There are many publications that suggest that lionfish came from an aquarium during hurricane Andrew and other "aquarium enthusiasts". So, a handful of lionfish populated the entire South Eastern seaboard and we are going to eradicate them by hand? I don't think so. Let's say that we killed every last one of them and didn't find say, 10 of them... That means that they could repopulate the entire South Atlantic again? Either there needs to be a predator that lives and swims in the ocean 24 hours a day to eat them, or something in their DNA that causes them to go extinct. |
11-19-2013, 01:01 AM | #7 | |
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Location: santa cruz
Age: 48
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Re: Lionfish Blinding test
Quote:
i can give you a hundred other examples . what about that tweek in the dna that can wipe out lion fish transfers to all the other fish ? what then ? face it lion fish are here to stay. odds are it will go very wrong if someone thinks they can fix the problem with genetic tweaking or by introducing another predator |
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11-19-2013, 08:54 AM | #8 | |
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Join Date: Jul 2006
Location: Charleston, SC
Posts: 411
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Re: Lionfish Blinding test
Quote:
As far as it "transferring to other fish", species don't typically interbreed. That's what makes them a different species, and for species that do interbreed, the offspring is usually infertile (see "mule"). I'm not talking about a virus or anything. I'm talking about a modification that makes them less likely to deal with predators, but still contribute to the gene pool. Like disarming their venom, or something that makes their spines soft, or something that makes them less re-productive, a different color, etc. And yes, I realize that "lionfish are here to stay". Isn't that sort of my point? If human is the only pressure we can put on lionfish, then it's like pissing on a forest fire. Only scientific innovation can cure us of this issue. |
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12-03-2013, 07:06 PM | #9 |
Registered User
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Re: Lionfish Blinding test
Beautiful fish, though... we have them now in San Blas, Panama. Of course they take their toll on the local species, but one day they will meet a predator too, or their number will be balanced by the lack of their preys.. I'd rather not try to find a cure that could prove to be worse than the problem. By the way, do they have a predator in the Indo-Pacific? not much we can do, I guess, except find new recipes for a pterois-snack once in a while.
In Panama, we have now tarpons on the Pacific side, by the way... no doubt that they came through the canal, either alive or as eggs... but they seem to have found a nice environment, a friend of mine took a 2-meters specimen with a rapala 2 years ago. From Panama, they might invade Costa Rica one day and continue north... |
01-02-2014, 03:36 PM | #10 |
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Join Date: Oct 2008
Location: Carolina Coast
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Re: Lionfish Blinding test
That's a great theory but the NOAA guys I work with have been talking about blinding lionfish with a laser on ROV's since last year. Great idea on paper but its kind of a dumb idea once thought out. What stoner thought of this idea in the first place; can you picture it? "Woa man what about shooting the lionfish with lasers; yea lasers? You know how it can blind a human, right.....what about blinding the lionfish so they cant see anymore. They will die eventually....right?"
How many fish have you caught on H&L or shot that were injured in one eye? How are you going blind both eyes? What about accidently blinding other fish, then you are creating by-catch and are no better than H&L or net fishermen? Are you really going to make a dent in the lionfish population with a bunch of divers and ROV's with freekin laser beams shooting fish. And if this was the case I would be shooting every skiddish grouper in the eye with a laser pointer and blind him before making a dive on him. They are out of control in the Atlantic, especially at depths past normal recreational dive limits. I like to think I am doing my part in Harvesting as much lionfish as I possibly can but they are here to stay. Its sad and nothing we can do is going to make them go away without doing more damage to what we are trying to protect. Learn to harvest them and eat them and do the best you can. Sometimes my buddies and I put the guns down and just take down lionfish gear harvesting 30-40lbs average per dive, most of which are 2-3.5lb lions. Grab a small pole spear and go to town boys and stop playing with kids toys.
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