Lionfish

There are now 659 less Indo-Pacific red lionfish calling the tranquil waters of the Florida Keys National Marine Sanctuary home.

The end to a bunch of lionfish derbies was held this past Saturday off the lower keys. As you know, these lionfish have been making quite a nuisance of themselves for the past little while, and efforts have been made to get rid of the little rascals, whether it be simple catching, netting in, and even pan frying.

Diving teams managed to round up 109 of these dastardly invaders, adding to the tally of lionfish brought in froIndo-Pacific red lionfish m the previous derbies in Key Largo and Marathon.

Lionfish which are muscling their way into the waters off the southeast United States, Bahamas and Caribbean are causing harm to the native species to those waters as they are chowing down on vital reef species, such as snapper and grouper.

A spokesperson for the Reef Education Foundation, Lad Atkins, has commented that lionfish don’t have any natural enemies, except for us humans.

bluntnose sixgill shark

The Cape Eleuthera Institute, located in the sunny Bahamas, has just begun a new study this past week, which aims to figure out the numbers and diveristy of deep ocean sharks living in the calm waters of the all too popular tourist destination.

The scientists behind this new study include: Lucy Howey-Jordan, of Microwave Telemetry Incorprated; Dr. Demian Chapman, of Stony Brook University; and Dr. Dean Grubbs, of Florida State University. This group of savvy researchers has traveled to the Cape Eleuthera Institute to help get the project on its feet, and have had some great success.

During three days, performing six different surveys, the group managed to reel in six different species of deep water sharks. The sharks reeled in included some 13 foot bluntnose sixgill sharks, and even an 18 inch, which is still fully grown, sawtail catshark.

We don’t really know a whole lot about the myriad of species which dwell in the depths of our oceans and this is no less true when we talk about deep ocean sharks. Of all the current species of sharks known to man, fifty-six percent of them dwell below 600 feet of water. Of these fifty-six percent, only five of the species encompassed have life history, and only three species have movement patterns mapped out.

This study aims to change all that, and they are off to a good start. It hasn’t been at all harmful to the local tourism industry either. While the teams are buying goods and provisions locally, tourists are also being drawn to the research as well.

Shark fins

Both local and international conservations groups and organizations are banding together to help protect sharks which call the Bahamian waters home, after an article published in Tribune exposed the potential for shark finning practices in Andros.

James Mackey, Chief Executive Officer of Sunco Wholesale Seafood Limited, told the Tribune that the company was thinking of expanding their operation of sea cucumber export in Mastic Point, North Andros, to encompass the exportation of shark fins to eager clients in Hong Kong.

Well, that was obviously a BIG mistake.. The comments he made, and subsequently were published, really created an uproar from different groups and conservationists not only from the Bahamas, but from round the globe. This comes in response to shark populations declining up to 80% around the world, due to the $200 per kilogram delicacy being fished out of our worlds’ oceans.

Interestingly enough, and what caused most of the ruckus, is that the Bahamas is home to the most biologically diverse and pristine shark populations which the Atlantic has to offer. This is due to the fact that the commercial fishers have never really taken an interest in them, that is until now.

However, the outcry comes from the fact that the Bahamas National Trust, in conjunction with the Pew Environment Group which is in the midst of launching a campaign that would hopefully make the fishing and finning of sharks illegal.

Bermuda‘s first Lionfish Tournament resulted in just four participants returning with lionfish for the weigh-in. Although this might sound disheartening, it is actually happy news for Lionfish project leader Chris Flook of the Bermuda Aquarium, Museum and Zoo since it indicates a relative scarcity of lionfish in Bermuda waters.

Lionfish is an invasive species in the Caribbean where it lacks naturally predators and multiplies uncontrollably. In the Bahamas, female lionfish spawn twice a month. Lionfish Tournaments like the one just held in the Bermudas is a way to boost public awareness and decimate the number of lionfish in the Caribbean. A Lionfish Tournament held in the Bahamas a few weeks ago resulted in the catch of about 1,400 lionfish.

“If we’d caught 1,000 fish it would have been very concerning, because it means it’s happening here like everywhere else,” Flook explained. “It means we may be ahead of the game and are potentially managing the population here in Bermuda.”

However, Flook also said that one of the reasons why not many fish were caught Bermuda’s Lionfish Tournament could be that they were hiding in deep waters following the storm surge of the recent Hurricane Bill and Tropical Storm Danny.

Mr. Flook began the Lionfish Culling Programme last year to encourage divers and fishermen to hunt down the species. Organised by environmental group Groundswell, the ‘Eat ‘um to beat ‘um’ event also aimed to show how invasive lionfish can be utilized as a food source.

“I think everybody who tasted it was very for it. It’s a great tasting fish,” said Flook, as Chris Malpas, executive chef at the Bank of Butterfield, cooked up samples of speared lionfish at Pier 41.

“The tournament has got the message out and so now hopefully people might start asking for lionfish in restaurants and fishermen will bring them in rather than throwing them overboard.

By eating lionfish we will take the pressure off some of our commercial fish. Every one you take is one less eating our juvenile fish,” said Flook.

If you want to know more about spearfishing lionfish in Bermudas, contact the Bermuda Aquarium at 293-2727 ext. 127, or the Marine Conservation Officer at 293-4464 extension 146 or e-mail lionfish@gov.bm. The Marine Conservation Officer should also be contacted if you see a lionfish in Bermuda waters.

Basking sharks have surprised researchers by leaving the cold waters of the north Atlantic during fall and head down to Bahamas and the Caribbean.

“While commonly sighted in surface waters during summer and autumn months, the disappearance of basking sharks during winter has been a great source of debate ever since an article in 1954 suggested that they hibernate on the ocean floor during this time,” said Gregory Skomal of Massachusetts Marine Fisheries. “Some 50 years later, we have helped to solve the mystery while completely re-defining the known distribution of this species.”

Basking Shark

Basking sharks are notoriously difficult to study for several reasons. They feed exclusively on plankton which means you can’t catch them using traditional rod-and-reel methods and they disappear down to deep waters for extended periods of time. During the part of the year when they do stay close to the surface, they are only found in cool waters teaming with plankton where the underwater visibility is close to zilch.

This situation has led to a lot of speculation about their life style and where they actually spend the winters. Despite being the second largest fish in the world, the basking shark is remarkably elusive and mysterious.

What finally solved the puzzle was the aid of new satellite-based tagging technology and a novel geolocation system which made it possible to track the basking whales as they commenced their annual migration. Data sent out from the tags unveiled that basking sharks migrates to warm tropical waters in fall. Their migrations have been able to go undetected until know since the sharks travel at depths of 200 to 1,000 meters and sometimes remain at those depths for weeks or even months at a time.

Skomal said he and his fellow researchers were absolutely surprised when they first received a signal from the tagged sharks coming from the tropical waters of the western Atlantic, since virtually everyone assumed basking sharks to be cool-water dwellers found in temperate regions only.

This new breakthrough show just how little we still know about even the largest marine animals inhabiting the world’s oceans. The basking shark can reach a length of 10 metres and weigh up to seven metric tons, yet it has managed to spend every summer in the Caribbean without anyone noticing it.

You can find more information in the report published on May 7 in Current Biology.