Intro to Lionfish Hunting : Pole Spears, Zookeepers, Handling and Cooking Tobago WI

Lionfish, are not native to the Atlantic Ocean nor the Caribbean Sea, it is believed that they were released into the Florida water system in the 1980’s, and … the females just a year old can produce between 10,000 - 30,000 eggs every 4 days, naturally they have multiplied and spread very rapidly.
When one first looks at them they appear very pretty, so, what’s the problem you may ask ?
Well, the Lionfish are voracious feeders, they love to eat, and they eat every species of life they can fit into their mouths.
Lionfish hang out and live on our reefs, they love to hide out in cracks, crevices or rock holes and they eat the many juvenile species, that lives and forms the ecosystem that supports our important coral reefs around our islands …
Since the Lionfish have invaded our waters, they have no known predators, unlike their presence in the Pacific Ocean where other marine life preys on them and keeps their population in a sustainable balance.
SCUBA and Freedivers are the only meaningful predators the Lionfish have at the moment. So to save our reef life (fish and lobsters etc), and therefore the reef - Corals health we need to encourage hunting of these Lionfish to the greatest extent.
In this video you can see what tools are most effective for us to hunt and collect the Lionfish in our waters … having had lots of practice, I can now collect two boxes of Lionfish per dive in some areas, but I need the right gear to do so … my choice is the Lionfish Zookeeper containment units shown here, and the SCUBA Choice Pole Spears with the long barbs, mainly cause the Lionfish I hunt tend to be large. Lionfish prefer to feed at night, but get active on overcast days and early in the mornings or late evenings.
Rather than pack to much info in a long drawn out video, this video is the intro to four more Lion Fish Videos : The Pole Spears, The Lionfish Containment Units, handling cleaning and cooking the Lionfish and the Lionfish in the Caribbean in general!
Do you hunt Lionfish also ? What gear do you use ?
#lionfish #zookeeper #polespear

[@jimwonderboy3390]

I wish I could swim and snorkel at least. I would love to do this.

[@2legdog]

Niceness!! Need some MORE!!

[@rontiah]

Thanks for that ... more coming ... this is the first of a few videos aimed to help us all get more Lionfish :) TY and Happy 2023!

[@dedenreview1599]

Hello sir. Very nice video. Looking forward for new videos of lion fish hunting

[@dredd183]

nice one ron

[@rontiah]

Yes yes … time for you to shoot your share !

[@dredd183]

@@rontiah waiting patiently

[@EmileJobity]

Great

[@michaelmorris3498]

You should point out that the pole spear needs to have the spear bit to work. 😬🙄

[@rontiah]

Lol .... Yes indeed ... and does not work when laying at the bottom of the Ocean :)