A group of divers on a volunteer mission to capture lionfish invading the territory had success Sunday when they found a small one off Hassel Island, measuring 2.5 inches long.
“We did our normal search,” said John Rubattino, St. Thomas coordinator for the non-profit group Caribbean Oceanic Restoration Education (CORE).
The group had a dozen divers in the water Sunday—their third lionfish search in the last two months. Rubattino said that Admiralty Dive Center, Blue Island Divers, St. Thomas Dive Club, and Red Hook Dive Center are helping CORE with its efforts to round up lionfish.
The divers did two dives of 45 minutes each looking for lionfish, Rubbatino said.
Rubbatino has reports of another lionfish off the barge Kennedy, located in St. Thomas’ Gregory Channel, but said that so far, divers haven’t been able to capture it.
William Coles, who is keeping tabs on how many lionfish are captured across the territory for the Fish and Wildlife Division of the Planning and Natural Resources Department, said Monday that he’s had 59 reports.
“They’ve mostly been St. Croix,” he said, putting the St. Croix number at 50.
The number doesn’t reflect the total number caught because not everyone makes a report to Fish and Wildlife, he said.
On June 4, the B.V.I. government sent out a press release announcing the capture of the second one in its waters in less than a week. This one was found north of Tortola by a fisherman pulling traps. The first one was found near Anegada.
“It is good to see that the public outreach and education that the Conservation and Fisheries Department is putting out is working and advises that anyone who spots a lionfish should immediately mark the location and contact the department,” Chief Conservation and Fisheries Officer Bertrand Lettsome said in the press release.
The fisherman who caught the lionfish off Tortola also caught one several weeks ago, but Lettsome said he let it go because he didn’t know about the dangers they pose to the territory’s fishing industry. Lettsome said the fisherman learned of the issues thanks to Conservation and Fisheries’ public education campaign.
Rubbatino is also on a public education campaign, with visits planned to radio stations and other locations this week. He said he knows of several instances where fisherman dumped the lionfish caught in their fish traps back into the ocean because they didn’t know of the dangers.
The first lionfish in the territory was caught off St. Croix in 2008. Coles and divers began scrambling to capture the fish before they devastated the territory’s reefs. Lionfish are prodigious eaters and will devour reef fish that keep the reefs clean of algae. When algae covers the reefs they die.
It is believed the fish, native to the Pacific-Indo region, got into the ocean after Florida residents emptied their aquariums when 1992’s Hurricane Andrew cut off their electrical supply.
If you sight a lionfish, call the lionfish hotline at 643-0800.
