Does it really help to control the population by taking out the males? From a hunting perspective, shooting feral boar hogs has little effect on numbers. If we could lure and trap females - then we would have something!
You take out enough males of any species and it will make a difference in numbers. On the hog thing I target male and female. Your the only one I’ve heard that is only targeting boars. Why? Unless they are under a hundred pounds or so I leave all the boars for the buzzards not fit to eat IMO.
I do NOT target boars. I never said that. I much prefer to shoot large sows with shoats and pigs at her side. I have done this many times and the young’uns will not leave. I have shot 11 at one sitting this way. It just seems that there is no control with feral hogs-
Just comparing this to the lion fish problem.
quote:Originally posted by Fred67
quote:Originally posted by natureboy
Does it really help to control the population by taking out the males? From a hunting perspective, shooting feral boar hogs has little effect on numbers. If we could lure and trap females - then we would have something!
You take out enough males of any species and it will make a difference in numbers. On the hog thing I target male and female. Your the only one I’ve heard that is only targeting boars. Why? Unless they are under a hundred pounds or so I leave all the boars for the buzzards not fit to eat IMO.
…and that’s where baby back ribs and lion fish come from…
Great discussion.
I shoot a bunch of lion fish. Please tell me where I can go to locate literature and illustrations to preform these lion fish hysterectomies.
Would love to put some traps out since nothing much eats these bastards even when stabbed and left to rot on the reef.
Cousteau Complex, there is no literature that I know of showing how to perform a lionfish hysterectomy. I plan to gut the fish and see what looks right. You could probably just stick all of the female lionfish guts in a mesh bag. I am trying to get some scientists, fishery managers, divers, and fishermen to work together this summer on a pilot program to see how effective this technique would be off our coast. I will try to put you in contact with the right people in your area if you are interested in helping.
The first female lionfish reproductive organ bait I know of in America will be used early next month off NC. We will know pretty soon how well this works.
I’ve heard that black sea bass will devour a dead lionfish on the bottom if left to rot on the reef. Can any of you divers confirm this?
That is absolutely right, but you really need to grind it up with your dive knife when shucking it from the tip of the spear. No need to actually shoot them. They are stupid bold, and don’t run. Just let them back into the nearest corner, and then you can gig them with the speargun without wasting a shot. The hard part is peeling them from the spear without getting stung.
The BSBs will destroy them, when they severely wounded. Probably a little vengeance from the BSBs during the process.
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PS: If a fly lost it’s wings, would it be called a walk?
In the keys, I’d go after them armed with a pole spear with a paralyzer tip and a 40 L dry bag to bring them to the top. Good eats and easy to clean. Just use gloves and some wire cutters to take the barbs off.
The problem with starting a commercial fishery here is that it wouldn’t be profitable. Not much meat on a fish that is typically sold by the pound and hard to process. And unfortunately, commercial entities need to make a profit. The hormone trap seems to be the best idea that I have heard of yet. This is one of those rare times where I would support government funding for this since I know that it will never be profitable enough for private industry to pursue.
Wrong. A commercial fishery is needed, I’ve seen local lions 20 inches and have gotten 4 dinner portions out of 1 fish. Plus you can fry whole like bronzini even though for some reason folks in this town won’t eat fish with heads on. Wtf is that??
Traps. Never. Dnr and noaa have already said. Will damage reef, will get plenty of by catch. Let’s remember Bsbs love to hide as do red snapper. Look we have. Porgy fishery those are small not much meat.
I have spent 5 yrs doing this. Lions are in high demand at my place, we can’t ever get enuff. Sold 300lbs in 3 days. I created a market here and now we have a demand. And no. Nobody is getting rich killing lions but my divers shoot grpr,hog and lions. The grpr is their paycheck and then the rest is free money. We need more commercial divers. Look at the facts. As I mentioned before Jamaica has a fishery,1plant. And they have seen a 60% drop in lion pop since please google it. Not lying. I can go on and on. I’ve got plenty of facts, figures, stories Etc. Bottom line is I have created a demand here and that was the hard part. Now go get me lions plz. I will buy all.
But traps won’t happen my guys at Noaa have told me in the past. Not happening. Will damage reefs and kill them. One idea is capture juvis for Aquirum trade. Ppl pay up to $200 for a baby shipped from over seas. Why?? We have then here. We can create local jobs and sell for much less.
A fishery will put less pressure on other species in complex and allow the biomass to repopulate. A fishery needs to happen. Let me say 5 it’s ago ppl laughed when I mentioned lionfish, some on here. Then it got big, the demand came. Then the media came. And nobody’s laughing anymore. And yes bragging but I did that. We can talk talk talk. But I’m taking actions. I’m helping save out seas. I’ve pulled 19 Bliners and a handful of sardines out of 1 lion. Sent a pic to my noaa guy and a few biologists including some from sea grant thinking “wow these guys haven’t seen this many before”. Ya I was wrong. NOAA guys s
Ps. To the guy who wants to learn how to filet. Come on down. It’s easier then you think. I don’t even remove the spines now unless I’m using for garnish
Ya one more thing. You can bake spines at 350 for like 8 mins and removes toxins and can be used at toothpicks. Stabbing each other. W/e.
Fishery. Needed
There’s a fine line between fishing and just standing on the shore like an idiot. ~Steven Wright
NOAA officials told me the only people who could trap lionfish would be BSB trap endorsement holders. We will see soon if the hormone bait works here. If it does work, the next step should be to see how far off a reef the traps can be set and still catch. This research is being done by NOAA and Discovery Diving out of Beaufort, NC. Caribbean fishermen said there was no by-catch since other fish avoid lionfish. With 35 traps and $5 a pound for lionfish, fishermen should be able to make a good profit. The bigger lionfish are out deeper than most divers go.
…and that’s where baby back ribs and lion fish come from…
Great discussion.
I shoot a bunch of lion fish. Please tell me where I can go to locate literature and illustrations to preform these lion fish hysterectomies.Would love to put some traps out since nothing much eats these bastards even when stabbed and left to rot on the reef.
Here are a couple photos I took of the female ovaries of red lionfish.
Note, this female was in the spawning stage, so the ovaries are very well developed.
One idea is capture juvis for Aquirum trade. Ppl pay up to $200 for a baby shipped from over seas. Why?? We have then here. We can create local jobs and sell for much less.
Lionfish go for under $50 for small ones. usually $30 or so depending on the species.
Big one’s sometimes sell. But not frequently.
The reason LF are infesting the waters are because people release them when fish stores won’t take big ones.
Mako 1901 Inshore-Honda 130
10% of the people catch 90% of the fish.
Do they only inhabit off shore reefs? Are there any in inshore waters? Just seems that they would be released from points inshore .
It’s too cold inshore in the winter for them to survive. They overwinter in deeper waters (shelf and deeper)where the influx of gstream waters keep it warmer.
Genetic studies show that the invasive population came from about 4 individuals, so any current aquaria releases that may be happening are but a drop in the bucket.
