Lionfish "Eating the Enemy"

General Cooking your catch
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We are faced with a real problem in our backyard that needs to be dealt with immediately…LIONFISH

I would like to put together a spearfishing tournament and would love some ■■■■■■■■ from you guys!

Here are just some of the shocking facts on this predator that is wreaking havoc…

Lionfish are a highly invasive species that have caused a major disruption our reef ecology.
A female has the ability to produce 2 million eggs every year!
Their are no known natural predators
They have a voracious appetite and can consume 80% of the reefs population of small fish in just weeks!
The population has increased by 700% in 4 years in NC alone!

What we can we do?? Trap them, spearfish them and EAT THEM! They are DELICIOUS! I had the pleasure of dining on them at Fleet Landing Restaurant in Charleston and have attached one of the pictures that was taken by Allison Nickell, photographer for Guy Harvey Magazine. Fleet Landing is the only restaurant in Charleston who has been bold enough to serve these delectable fish on their menu! During the Food and Wine Festival this week-end, Fleet will be serving Lionfish once again! They have about 50 pounds to serve to the public but anticipate that it will sell out by Saturday! Please do your part in eliminating the species by dining on them! They have the texture of grouper with the sweetness of snapper. I have had the fish prepared for me in a variety of ways and have included a picture of the lionfish ceviche that was to die for! Please look for my article and others on Lionfish as well as my review of Fleet Landing in the latest edition of Guy Harvey Magazine.

For more information as to how to prepare Lionfish please go to www.guyharveymagazine.com

If you are interested in participating in a Lionfish Tournament or would like to help collaborate and organize this event, please contact me!

Thanks guys!

Sue Cushman

[img]http://old.charlestonfishing.com/

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Can you hook catch these? I don’t hear a lot about them, but if they eat everything like everything says you’d think they’d be on every hook in certain areas.

BG

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You can hook them. I have pulled them up with a sabiki off a hard bottom or live bottom. THEY SEEM TO LOVE trigger fish! The commercial fisherman are catching them as a bi-catch when they are fishing for grouper. They are caught in lobster traps in large numbers. We need more commercial fisherman out there targeting them. The meat sells for as much as $20 dollars a pound with some of the finest restaurants in New York now catching on to the buzz! As many as 1500 have been speared in a days work in a spearfishing tournament. They tend to hang out in the deeper waters but Magwood gets them in his shrimpin’ nets just draggin’ around the harbor! GO GET EM’!

Scoot