# Lionfish Population Control Proposal



## Candy (Jan 6, 2008)

PFF Members,

I have personally sent the proposal below to the FWC Commissioners. If you believe this would be a good way to motivate divers to help save our fishery, feel free to send a letter of support for this plan to [email protected]. 

A single sentence that states please support Candy Hansard's Lionfish Population Control Program would be fine. If you felt inclined to discuss the value of motivation, that would be great. 

*Lionfish Population Control Program Proposal*

This program is designed to control the population of lionfish in the waters off the State of Florida and to provide ample lionfish for research purposes. 
Success is dependent on the volunteer participation of spearfishers and, the State’s ability to motivate them to agressively target the lionfish. 

•	Divers who turn in 100 lionfish will receive an exemption card that they can keep with their fishing license that allows them to keep 1 Red Snapper and 1 Grouper year round, even out of season and, an extra 1 Red Snapper and 1 Grouper in season, per trip.
o	Spearfishers who wish to take Snappers and Groupers would still be required to have a valid fishing license, unless they are exempt due to age.
•	Divers who turn in an extra 100 lionfish during their extention period will receive an extra year extention added to their card, without limit to how many years they can receive. (Example: if you turn in 500 lionfish, you can get a 5 year exemption card.)
o	This will motivate the best spearfishers to agressively target lionfish, especially the first few years of the program. This will help reduce the population quicker having the biggest positive impact on the fishery. 
•	Divers will be allowed to keep their fillets but, the fish must be kept on ice or frozen to keep them in good condition for research
•	Lionfish will be turned in to FWC law enforcement, participating non-profits or, businesses in each coastal county who will be issued a State supplied freezer, shipping containers and a lionfish receipt log and exemption cards.
o	Each exemption Card issued would be reported to the respective FWC regional director within 72 hours from the time of issue. 
•	Any State, University or other research facility can request FREE lionfish for research purposes but each institution or State must pay the for shipping and handling charges. (Handling charge not to exceed the shipping charge.)
o	Any lionfish not used for research would be destroyed by FWC law enforcement after the period of 3-6 months. 
•	To renew or extend their exemption, divers would have to turn in another 100 lionfish 
o	This will keep spearfishers hunting lionfish year round to extend their exemptions. 

This proposal will require each county to have a turn-in location and an officer, receptionist or, volunteer organization to count lionfish and provide the divers with a receipt, for turned in lionfish. When the diver has a total of 100 lionfish, they will be given their exemption that will include their name, as listed on their fishing or drivers licence, date of birth, race and gender and their fishing or drivers license number. The exemption will be dated with an expiration date that is exactly 1 year from the date the exemption card was issued. Each exemption would be entered into a data base that would be easily accessible to prevent fraud.

The State would have a record of where lionfish for research are located/stored and could have a central request form, on the FWC website, for research agencies, Universities and States that need lionfish for various research projects and contact information for the nearest lionfish collection center. 

Each month, a list of names of the divers who qualified for the exemption would be published on the FWC homepage under the title: “Champions of the Fishery”. This would serve to help motivate more people to participate in lionfish population control program and help to stress the importance of removing the lionfish from our waters. Each Coastal County’s FWC law enforcement office or collection organization would also send a Champions of the Fishery list to the local papers to increase public awareness of the problem and, help motivate more people to participate. 

When you consider that, according to the FWC’s own research, the lionfish eat 56 species of our native fish and our prey fish at unsustainable rates, allowing divers who remove 100 lionfish to have a few extra fish per trip is a small investment to save our fishery. Because there are no natural predators of lionfish in our waters, and the fact that lionfish are not known to bite hooks, divers are our only chance to save our native fish. This program is designed to motivate divers and reward them for helping to save the fishery. 

Knowing that a single lionfish can release up to 2 million eggs per year, if you assume that half the lionfish removed are female, a single diver participating in this control program would remove potentially 100 million eggs per year! Now, multiply that by divers all around the state and the reduction in the lionfish population should begin to be strikingly evident after the second year of the program. If you only have 10 divers participating, you could remove up to a billion eggs per year! Now, imagine you have 10 divers in each of Florida’s 35 Coastal Counties participating in this program, that would remove 350 billion lionfish eggs from our fishery, the first year of the program! This will give our native fish a better chance of survival. 

This program could be a model for ALL the Atlantic and Gulf of Mexico Coastal States. Florida could be the State that paves the way to save the fishery in the Pacific from also becoming overrun by the lionfish if… all the other Gulf Coast States followed Florida’s lead. As Florida’s FWC Commissioners, you are in a position to implement an extremely low cost lionfish population control program to address the biggest threat our fishery has ever faced. This would no doubt be the legacy you would be most proud of when your service as a Commissioner is completed.

IF the FWC Commission were to petition the NMFS to also honor this program in Federal Waters, there is a very good chance that our fishery would be saved by this program, for future generations to enjoy. 

By keeping the number of lionfish turn-in’s required for an exemption at an attainable number, the FWC will have more participation in the program. For accomplished spearfishers, 100 lionfish will be an easy task. For most spearfishers, it will take time to learn and become comfortable targeting this fish due to the fact that they will have to be cautious of their spines. 

The FWC would place a disclaimer on their website that informs divers that participation is completely voluntary and the participants are solely responsible for their own safety at all times. It’s a standard procedure with every dive operation and our State should protect themselves from liability by having a disclaimer as part of the participation promotion. The disclaimer should provide safety information, handling tips, first aid and, list the statistics of sting complications, not just the worst-case-scenarios. The majority of stings are no worse than a bee sting and that should be explained along with the extremely rare but, more serious complications.

The cost of this program will be minimal as long as the program remains simple. One of the biggest threats to the success and the cost of implementation would be if regulators make the program complicated or scare people by exaggerating the dangers associated with lionfish. 

Keeping it simple will encourage participation and will keep the costs minimal. By providing recognition locally and on the State’s FWC website, the FWC will increase awareness of the program and participation. Spearfishers who help save the fishery should be hailed as Champions of the Fishery. This will also improve public relations by creating an army fishery advocates throughout our State. It will show that the FWC is serious about protecting the fishery and is willing to work with the public to accomplish that goal.


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## Dang Dang (Feb 27, 2013)

If that passes you'd better buy stock in dive equipment. lol that is a serious topic tho. Shoot em all.


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## gator7_5 (Oct 4, 2007)

Dang Dang said:


> If that passes you'd better buy stock in dive equipment. lol that is a serious topic tho. Shoot em all.


Yeah really, a license to harvest snapper and grouper yr. round? Good luck. Seriously.


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## no woryz (Oct 2, 2007)

Thanks for the effort Candy..... let see what the power's that be do with it.... we dove yesterday for the research team and on 2 dives we harvested 93 lionfish.... thanks for what you do...

Clint


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## Candy (Jan 6, 2008)

IF the FWC Commission is flooded with support for the proposal, it will stand a better chance of being placed on the agenda and implemented.

The Commission has not treated the lionfish as a serious threat for nearly 3 decades now and, as a result, our entire fishery is in danger. 

It only takes a minute to send them a short message that we want the FWC to be part of the solution. *It is their job to protect the fishery* but, they can't tackle this problem without the help of divers all over the State...and hopefully... divers in the other coastal states and, the NMFS.

Please e-mail them a short message to: [email protected]

If you post your message, you may motivate others to also send the commissioners a message of support.:thumbup:


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## MillerTime (Jul 6, 2011)

This sounds awesome. Doubt it will happen though.


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## sealark (Sep 27, 2007)

Good luck on this one. besides lets face it the lion fish are here to stay. They are deep water and shallow water adapters you may slow them for a while but that is the best you can expect. in the long run like every other species they will reach equilibrium and survive like everything else. I hear they are good eating.


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## Berry (Mar 8, 2011)

like sealark said "hear they are good eating" which mean as we get more mature ones here we should get some nice fillets. Of course by that time they will be moving from part of the 20 reef fish bag limit to just 2 per person.

in all seriousness great commonsense plan good luck


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## wide_open (May 24, 2010)

I love the idea, Candy :thumbsup:

My biggest concern is that the FWC _may_ perceive the implementation of such a plan as a greater strain on them than the established lionfish population. 

While simple, it still requires a great deal of personnel and regulation, and they may write it off immediately as too demanding. 

It might be more successful if there were initially a small number of participating areas in order to reduce the number of facilities and employees involved. Perhaps one county could get permission to try it, and data could be used to guide future implementation.


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## sealark (Sep 27, 2007)

It wont even be considered. How would they regulate when you caught your snapper if they didn't stop you and check you. People could easily just keep catching there snapper until they got stopped. Unlike commercial regulations that require each trip to be monitored and checked before every sale plus a call before leaving on every trip. It's BS. Thats just what I think...


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## k-p (Oct 7, 2009)

Candy good ideas and thanks for your initiative but it just won't work out that way. That's not to say getting rid or at least managing lionfish won't work. Like Sealark said, they're hear to stay. Just like cogongrass, fire-ants, pythons down south and hogs. The best we can hope for is open season on them and telling everybody they taste good to keep them managed. That's the only way to deal with invasive species. Actually sounds like another good Gov't opportunity in the works....


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## Chapman5011 (Mar 7, 2013)

Candy said:


> IF the FWC Commission is flooded with support for the proposal, it will stand a better chance of being placed on the agenda and implemented.
> 
> The Commission has not treated the lionfish as a serious threat for nearly 3 decades now and, as a result, our entire fishery is in danger.
> 
> ...


They are too concerned with saving the red snappers that are not in any danger.


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## MULLET HUNTER (Oct 3, 2007)

I didn't read the whole thing "my ADD kicked in" however the first error that i saw is that FWC law enforcement has no bearing on research of fish populations, or research. That would be FWC biologist (or a private company). The Law enforcement side of FWC does just that and only that... They enforce laws...


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## Georgia tater (Jul 3, 2012)

Hell. just shoot the crap out of them anyways. It's like in georgia and your deer hunting. If you see a coyote you shoot it. Use them as target practice to hone your skills


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## Candy (Jan 6, 2008)

The Emerald Coast Reef Association has been collecting lionfish and donating them to researchers. I would like to see our State do the same thing. 

While all areas of the state have law enforcement who could help in the collection process, there are only a few areas with concentrations of FWC marine biologists who do research.

There are Universities, other States and Countries that need lionfish for research and, if our State would be a collection point, maybe one of those researchers would come up with a way to rid our waters of this invasive species.

This project would provide FREE lionfish to any scientist wishing to do research and all they'd have to pay for would be the shipping and handling charge. That is much cheaper for them than if they were to pay to go out and capture the fish because, let's face it, just because someone is book smart doesn't mean they know how to spearfish. 

Yes, it seems lionfish are here to stay but, if enough people were to begin targeting them, their numbers could be kept in check. The biggest problem right now is that they have no natural predators and spearfishers need motivation to get them so they become the predator of the lionfish. 

As far as the rules, they would get to keep 1 red snapper and 1 grouper per trip, year round and, they would have a card to keep with their fishing licence to show they are allowed to keep the fish. Same goes for the extra fish when RS and Grouper are in season. Simple.

It's the regulators that will think its complicated because they will try to complicate it. I believe keeping the plan simple would work.


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## wide_open (May 24, 2010)

Who would provide funding?


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## Candy (Jan 6, 2008)

The FWC has a nearly $300 Million dollar annual budget. This program, if it remains simple, will be very effective and inexpensive. 

The lionfish left unchecked will destroy our fishery and hurt Florida's coastal economies. That cost is too high. We must try something.


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## sealark (Sep 27, 2007)

Candy said:


> The FWC has a nearly $300 Million dollar annual budget. This program, if it remains simple, will be very effective and inexpensive.
> 
> The lionfish left unchecked will destroy our fishery and hurt Florida's coastal economies. That cost is too high. We must try something.


Candy, why haven't the unchecked lionfish ruined the fishery in the Red Sea and other areas they inhabit? Because they reach a normal survival amount and florish. Just like other fish. If they over populate more will not survive. Kill off millions and evolution will over produce for a few years until the scales are balanced. I dont like how they got here but they are here to stay no matter what we try. I hope you get the Snapper allocation for killing the lion fish. At least it will be another food fish to enjoy. if you get stung Hot Water is the cure.


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## Candy (Jan 6, 2008)

Our scientists do not know how the populations of lionfish in their native habitat are controlled but, linfish do not overpopulate in their native waters. Something keeps their populations low. Whatever it is, we do not have it here.

I dove in Australia and you would see them occasionally. They do no overpopulate there for some unknown reason. A friend of mine goes to Asia every year and dives and says it's the same there. You see a lionfish or two now and then but, no large populations like we are experiencing in our waters. 

If we can provide enough lionfish for research purposes, maybe they will discover a microbe or something that keeps their numbers low in their native habitats but, even if they do find something like that, it may be dangerous to introduce it to our marine environment.

Right now, it seems our only hope is to motivate an army of divers to go on lionfish killing sprees and continue to kill them year round. At least we do know from the research the FWC has done that lionfish tend to stay within a 300' area. That makes it easy to keep reefs cleaned off and provide safe habitat for our native fish.

It is very sad that we are having to deal with this crisis but we must do something. Obviously, doing nothing allowed the lionfish to make it all the way up the Atlantic Coast to New Jersey and, throughout the entire Caribbean and then...to the Florida Panhandle. If we continue to do nothing, it won't be long and we will look back with regret. I'd rather fight to save our fishery than to do nothing.


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## sealark (Sep 27, 2007)

Candy do you have a degree in marine Biology? Neither you or I were around when the first Lion fish evolved to say why they don't overpopulate in there original areas although my theory sound fairly reasonable that they wont overpopulate in our area either. How did the lion fish spread here when they supposedly stay within 300 feet? Come to think about it maybe I did see a sign saying Lion Fish stay within 300 ft limit. I'm finished you got my ideas no sense in going any further. One other thing after the net ban was imposed the first three years Mullet were everywhere then they slowly went back to where they were before the net ban. Logically they overpopulated then slowed down due to not too many being caught with cast nets VS gill nets. evolution maybe. Whoe Knows????


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## Candy (Jan 6, 2008)

All of the information I have shared about the lionfish is from research that was conducted by FWC and NOAA Marine Biologists over the past 28 years.

Sadly, the reality is that the lionfish population is exploding off our coast and they eat 56 species of our native fish and they eat our prey fish at unsustainable rates. An adult female lionfish reproduces every 4 days releasing up to 2 million eggs per year. Lionfish release their eggs in gelatinous sacks that float high in the water column. The eggs contain venom. When the eggs hatch, the fry have venomous spines that discourage predation. Lionfish fry drop to the bottom and when they discover habitat, they are known to stay within 300' of that habitat. 

It is unknown what prevents the lionfish from overpopulating in their native habitat but it is well known that the lionfish population is exploding in our waters. The idea that the lionfish will reach equilibrium has not played out over the past 28 years. 

Our FWC and NOAA scientists have learned a lot about the feeding, reproductive and migration of the lionfish. It is that information that should concern everyone who wants to save our fishery from destruction. 

We have a chance to save our fishery from destruction but it is going to take bold action from the States and cooperation from the diving community. I encourage every diver to begin killing lionfish on sight.


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## K-man (Oct 18, 2011)

I've read there is a grouper over there in the Indian Ocean where the lion fish originate that feeds on them. So far that grouper has not made it here yet. I don't know for sure myself but I fully support the control program you propose Candy.


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## Candy (Jan 6, 2008)

Thank you K-man.

A letter of support to the commission would be great. co[email protected] 

Lets face it, everyone knows we need to kill lionfish on sight but, with the limited time we have underwater, for most spear fishers, the motivation right now is to make sure they bring dinner home today. With this program, the motivation would be to actively target the lionfish so they could bring home dinner all year round.

I think it's a fair trade off and, the divers who help reduce the lionfish population should be rewarded. They are helping to save the fishery for everyone. A few fish per trip is a small price to pay to show our appreciation.


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