Lionfish Eradication update, June 2010

The Caribbean has been beautiful over the last few weeks, giving us beautiful snorkeling weather. Since we are working locally on lionfish eradication of the reefs, we found the last few weeks to be perfect weather for monitoring the reefs.
Overall we documented over 30 lionfish kills with sizes from only a few centimeters to some 20+ centimeters. As part of our eradication program we are monitoring the stomach contents of these animals, noting sizes, as well as location of capture.
Our current area of work includes the reefs from Playa Negra east to the end of Playa Cocles. These living reefs came up through the sand in the early 1990′s during a major earthquake. Being such young reefs, the growth and what fish inhabit the area are very important to note.
[singlepic id=273 w=320 h=240 float=right]On the fifteen trips on these reefs, we have noted close to 100 lionfish. Of the 30 documented kills, one animal (18cm in length) had at least 14 small (2.5-3cm) reef fish in its stomach when it was dispatched.
With little to no organization to this point in developing a gameplan to eradicate these animals, Puerto Viejo, it’s surrounding area, and the Caribbean in general is in for a very long battle with the invasive lionfish.
Currently we are working on developing a program which will utilize commercial support (restaurants) to assist Project Green Jungle and our partner organizations in this eradication program. Please stay tuned for our tutorial on how we dispatch and prepare animals for the restaurants.

Related posts:

1. Confirmed Lionfish Populations in Costa Rica
2. How to prepare lionfish