CAPTURE OF LIONFISH NO LONGER YIELD’S A REWARD

August 05, 2009

The Fisheries Department will no longer be paying the fifty dollars reward that was offered earlier this year for the capture of any lionfish in Belizean waters. Love News spoke with Isaias Majil, Marine Protected Areas Coordinator at the Fisheries Department who told us why the programme was implemented.

Isaias Majil: Marine Protected Areas Coordinator, Fisheries Department

“The lionfish is a threat to the juvenile fish found in the reef. It can consume up to about 80 percent of all the juvenile fish smaller than its size or about its size in a period of about five weeks so realizing that the fishing industry relies a lot on the commercial importance species like the groper and the snapper we needed to find out as much as possible the distribution of the lionfish and where they can be found. Based on information we have been receiving from our counterparts in the Bahamas, it can have a devastating effect.”

Majil explained why the reward was called off at this point in time.

Isaias Majil: Marine Protected Areas Coordinator, Fisheries Department

“The programme’s main objective was to try and gather as much information on this invasive species since it was fist sited in December and then caught in January. We did not know the abundance, the distribution or the size of this invasive species. With the private sector assisting us with this reward we thought that we could motivate fishermen and tour operators to try and capture these lionfish and bring them to the office for us start gathering as much information as possible.”

Ava Diaz-Sosa Reporter

What is the information that has been gathered so far? What has it been telling you? 

Isaias Majil: Marine Protected Areas Coordinator, Fisheries Department

“Basically we did a preliminary analysis and that is how we came up with the conclusion to stop the payment of the reward. The preliminary indication is that there is a very high concentration of this fish up north around San Pedro Ambergris Caye and the Turneff Atols. We have been finding that around these areas these distribution of small juvenile of the invasive species are very common. With that information we want to move ahead with the creation of a response plan.”

We asked Majil what will be the next step for the Department in addressing the problem of the lionfish.

Isaias Majil: Marine Protected Areas Coordinator, Fisheries Department

“At this point in time we are still in a position that we can have some kind of mitigations measures put in place. The lionfish is here to stay and that is something that is something that we have to understand and live with. What we have been finding is that a lot of small ones, about three to five inches, are the sizes that we are finding. That is telling us that they are not reproducing as yet in our waters. What this is telling is that we are receiving a lot of larvae from other areas in the Caribbean where these fish are already reproducing. They are settling in our reef, hatching and starting to grow.”

|

|