The Lionfish Hunt 2012 officially came to an end on World Ocean Day Saturday June 2nd.
Ocean Explorers Dive Center was anounced as 'The Best Lionfish Hunting Dive Shop 2012' with the most lionfish caught. Second place was taken by Aqua Mania and thirth place was shared by Blue Bubbles and Scuba Fun. Also prizes were for the 'Biggest' and 'smallest' lionfish. The biggest lionfish was brought in by Blue Bubbles and the smallest by Ocean ExplorersPrizes were donated by Artist Johanny Dietvorst van Bussel, The Scuba Shop, Vanity Firts, Ray's Jewellery, Tommy Hilfiger, Endless Summer, and Mist of the Carib, Chesterfields and Oualichi restaurants.
The aim of this contest was to get diveshops involved in helping to control the lionfish to protect our local reef. 'We need experienced divers and local fishermen to control the lionfish for protection of our local reef species. We really appreciate that enthousistic dive instructors want to help within the Man of War Shoal Marine Park and are happy with the positive responses by the divetourists. We hope that dive shops are willing to continue lionfish hunting to have a continious impact on the lionfish distribution'. said Tineke van Bussel, Lionfish researcher at the Nature Foundation and hunt organiser.
Fisherman are also continuously contributing to the control of the lionfish by trapping the animal in offshore areas. The skipper of the fishing vessel Sabrina brought in nearly a dozen lionfish over the weekend.
Lionfish are an invasive venomous fish that can inflict a painful and sometimes fatal sting. Lionfish are usually found in the Indian and Pacific Oceans but were introduced into the Atlantic thru the aquarium trade. Native fish species don't recognize the Lionfish as a threat so they are unable to defend themselves against it. In other places were lionfish were spotted there are hardly any snappers and grouper left because those are the type of fish the lionfish likes to eat.
The Nature Foundation encourages fishermen, divers and all those who may have captured or sighted lionfish to report their catch or sightings to the Nature Foundation through calling 5270490 or via email at This email address is being protected from spambots. You need JavaScript enabled to view it..
