The FWC Lionfish Problem in Florida noticed record-breaking participation and harvest numbers this yr. Some 285 divers eliminated 31,773 invasive lionfish from fragile coral reef ecosystems within the Gulf of Mexico and the Atlantic Ocean, in accordance with a press launch from the Florida Fish and Wildlife Conservation Fee.
A type of scuba divers was 46-year-old Baye Beauford of Jacksonville, who harvested 915 lionfish on his personal with a pole spear. Beauford went on to win the leisure division of the competitors, which stretched over 4 months. He received the identical division in 2023. Beauford’s pal and dive associate, Dale Wolber, got here in second place with 866 fish, and Tim Robinson of Broward County (who OL has spearfished with earlier than) got here in third with 726 lionfish.
“The primary yr of the problem, I bought second place and I didn’t even strive,” Beauford tells OL.
Picture courtesy of Baye Beauford
Beauford’s not bragging. As an alternative, he chalks up the benefit with which he beats different divers to the alarming severity of the lionfish downside off the coast of Duval County in northeastern Florida. Divers within the Jacksonville space exert little or no strain on the lionfish inhabitants. This units Jacksonville aside from different areas of Florida, just like the Keys, the place divers harvest lionfish extra recurrently and maintain the populations decrease. Over the 4 months of the competitors, Beauford and his buddies went on roughly one or two journeys per week, which suggests his 915 lionfish got here from just some dozen excursions.
The divers journey about 30 miles offshore to get to reefs with probably the most explosive lionfish populations. They dive to roughly 90 to 100 toes and hunt for a half-hour or so at a time, Beauford says. Lionfish are comparatively straightforward to identify round these reefs, despite the fact that they aren’t giant fish; Beauford’s private document is a 2.98-pounder.
Picture by FWC
Leisure individuals like Beauford report fish to the months-long competitors by reducing off lionfish tails, freezing them, and delivering them to a close-by examine station, normally a bait store or different licensed location.
Florida’s Lionfish Downside
Lionfish are ravenous, invasive, predatory fish which have taken up residence within the waters across the Gulf of Mexico and the Atlantic Coast, feeding on grouper, snapper, and different gamefish species within the space. They’re native to Indo-Pacific waters, however seemingly ended up close to Florida and elsewhere alongside the U.S. coast because of the aquarium commerce.
As a result of native predatory fish within the space don’t acknowledge lionfish as potential prey, they don’t have any pure predators in the mean time. That is the place spear divers are available in. Much like Florida’s Python Problem, the Lionfish Problem incentivizes divers to reap as many lionfish as potential, in hopes of constructing a distinction within the preservation of native marine ecosystems.
A single lionfish residing in a coral reef can cut back the recruitment, or the profitable inhabitants progress, of native reef fish by as much as 79 p.c, in accordance with NOAA. Contemplating the truth that lionfish can obtain inhabitants densities of 200 fish per acre of reef, they take an enormous toll on native fish numbers.
It helps that lionfish additionally occur to be scrumptious, and that their pores and skin is helpful for intricate jewellery and leather-based detailing. Each these makes use of assist create a requirement for lionfish byproducts, which in flip helps incentivize elimination. Actually, the industrial division of the Lionfish Problem is reserved for divers who promote the fish they harvest, and their harvests are recorded by kilos quite than particular person fish. (All prime three industrial finishers have been additionally from Duval County — divers Beauford is aware of effectively; Matt Meyers got here in first place with 1,785 kilos of fish.)
Picture courtesy of Baye Beauford
At present, a pound of lionfish meat fetches round $6, Beauford says. Lionfish has develop into his household’s favourite protein; Beauford says it’s much like hogfish or pink snapper with its white, flaky flesh. Now, he simply needs to see extra individuals get on board.
“Individuals don’t hear about them as a result of they’re not on the menu in loads of locations,” Beauford says. “We have now one distributor right here that owns 9 eating places, and he showcases them on his menu. However that’s just about it up right here [in Jacksonville].”
If different culinary favorites like grouper and snapper are getting decimated by lionfish, then Beauford sees a chance to assist re-regulate the marine meals chain by altering what fish he places on his desk.
“Lionfish can eat 3 times their body weight in someday, and so they’re consuming grouper and snapper and the entire species which can be closely regulated that we might in any other case be consuming,” he says. “However this species is definitely a sustainable supply of fish. We are able to’t get all of them, and so they multiply so quick.”
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Though Beauford plans to proceed spearing lionfish outdoors the competitors, he nonetheless bought a kick out of being topped the Lionfish King for the second yr in a row.
“It feels nice,” Beauford says of successful this yr’s competitors. “Everyone knows one another. We’re a staff that goes out and kills it.”