Solving the lionfish problem has a delicious solution! We need to make the lionfish available to chefs and home cooks alike. A positive step in this direction is happening in Florida at Whole Foods Market. Since the Monterey Bay Aquarium rated lionfish “Green” in 2016, Whole Foods Market offers lionfish at all their Florida stores, creating a market for this tasty predator and hopefully making a dent in the growing lionfish population.
In Grenada, there is an annual dive fest to hunt lionfish. In the Cayman Islands, the Cayman United Lionfish League (CULL) organizes lionfish culling tournaments every quarter, with each hunt culminating in an island-wide lionfish feast. And in Curaçao, divers can join lionfish hunts organized by several dive operators. St. Barts recently held its own lionfish rodeo to engage the island community in the effort to mitigate the invasive species in the St. Barts Nature Reserve.
For small-island states in the Caribbean like Barbados, the oceans are a critical element to the survival of the people who live there, so they are disproportionately affected by issues such as rising sea levels, overfishing, and intruding predatory species like lionfish. Forward-thinking local initiatives focus on promoting sustainable fishing methods and supporting responsible artisanal fisherfolk.
A lionfish derby is held annually in collaboration with the Barbados Lionfish Project. Members of this community are active in Slow Fish, the official Slow Food® campaign for sustainable fisheries. The main objective of Slow Fish’s social media activity is to educate people about what they can do to make change through their eating choices and habits.
In the Virgin Islands, the Caribbean Lionfish Response Program developed by CORE has been assisting with Invasive Lionfish Management since 2009. Educational materials and training have been provided for the US Virgin Islands, the British Virgin Islands, and Puerto Rico. Programming has consisted of public awareness, education, educational materials, training of invasive lionfish responders, maintaining a lionfish sighting network online at their website, and implementing a lionfish response network.
The Bahamas Department of Marine Resources team is working to collect data on lionfish populations. Experimental removals of lionfish were conducted to see what it will take to control lionfish populations locally and to determine how lionfish are affecting native fish populations in these habitats. Preliminary results indicate that while it may not be possible to eradicate lionfish in the Bahamas, their abundance can be reduced at specific sites by conducting removals every three months. These results will help marine resource managers determine appropriate actions to take to control populations of this invasive predator. Lionfish is appearing more and more frequently on the menus of Bahamian restaurants throughout the islands and even at local farmers’ markets throughout the year. Green Turtle Cay in Abaco hosts an annual lionfish derby.
In Jamaica, a campaign aimed at wiping out the species around the island nation has the motto “Eat sustainable, eat lionfish!” That push is sponsored by the US National Oceanic and Atmospheric Administration (NOAA). The National Environment and Planning Agency in Jamaica announced a 66 percent drop in sightings of the invasive fish as people are eating and enjoying the taste of the lionfish in large numbers.
In the Dominican Republic, the La Caleta Fishermen Cooperative is taking a proactive approach by regularly catching and selling lionfish to local restaurants to support the national strategy, which includes encouraging lionfish to be used on local menus. In Aruba, the Aruba Lionfish Initiative Foundation hosts monthly lionfish hunts around the island and currently maintains a daily lionfish cull count.
Here in Saint Lucia, Anse Chastanet is the only place that provides easy and sustainable access to divers due to its progressive green architecture by minimizing impervious surfaces, keeping shorelines stable, and completely preventing runoff from entering the water. Scuba St Lucia, the island’s five-star Professional Association of Diving Instructors (PADI) operation, provides the only beach entry to this incredible experience.
Scuba St Lucia now fuses marine conservation, sport fishing, and fine dining with a new innovative and unique lionfish removal program to fortify their aggressive conservation initiatives. Visitors are now authorized by special permit to spearfish the invasive lionfish as part of a win-win sustainable tourism partnership. Scuba St Lucia has also added a PADI “Invasive Lionfish Tracker Specialty Course” which provides two dives to educate visitors about humanely controlling the invasive species.
Taking angling to the next level experience, Saint Lucia’s Jade Mountain’s luxurious sustainable lionfish gourmet dinner is a true hunt-to-table parallel to the premium farm-to-table menus. The resort’s chefs prepare a multi-course lionfish tasting each Friday night right on the beach.
Don’t miss the ultimate annual Saint Lucia Dive Fest, when Anse Chastanet and Scuba St Lucia celebrate the underwater world with a week of scheduled boat and shore dives, courses, and photographic competitions—and a lionfish eradication day with a chef’s culinary demonstration and special dinner feast.
Sustainability Organizations
The Monterey Bay Aquarium aids consumers and chefs by recommending more sustainable seafood choices. I work with Seafood Watch along with several other talented chefs on a Blue Ribbon Task Force to share ideas about seafood sustainability and work toward ensuring a future with a healthy ocean.
The Reef Environmental Education Foundation links the diving community with scientists, resource managers, and conservationists through marine life data collection and related activities. They have a lionfish reporting app to collect current data on sightings and work to promote the REEF Invasive Lionfish derbies in Florida and elsewhere.
Complete eradication of lionfish is unlikely, but there is hope that developing better methods for local removal may be the key to controlling them and mitigating further damage. Research projects are attempting to identify the most efficient and cost-effective methods to fish down lionfish numbers so native fish populations can recover and stabilize.
Lionfish traps have been mostly ineffective in capturing the predators. However, organizations such as the Lionfish University are working with NOAA and other partners to develop new lionfish trapping devices that only attract lionfish so as not to harm native species. These model traps are being tested at much deeper water depths than those divers can access safely. Currently, fish traps are generally prohibited in US federal waters in the Gulf of Mexico and South Atlantic. With a clear preservation mission, this nonprofit is designing prototypical traps that will not damage the fragile ecosystem surrounding the reefs.
Safe Handling
Use care when handling lionfish, as they have up to eighteen venomous spines that can cause painful stings on their dorsal, pelvic, and anal fins. Stings can result in swelling, blistering, dizziness, necrosis, and even temporary paralysis. If stung, immerse the wound in hot (not scalding) water for thirty to ninety minutes and seek medical attention if necessary.
Filleting a lionfish is like filleting any other type of fish except for the need to use caution to avoid the spines located along the dorsal, pelvic, and anal fins. If you put the fish on its side, you can easily hold it by the bony gill plates or soft pectoral fins without getting stuck with a venomous spine. One safety precaution is to wear puncture-resistant gloves. Some also choose to cut off the spines prior to filleting. Use care when doing this as the venomous glandular tissues located within the grooves of the spines are present even at the base of the spine. Furthermore, the venom can remain active in the spines even after the lionfish is dead and stored on ice.
Once you’ve gotten the spines under control, fillet as you would any other fish, making incisions just behind the spines on the head down to the belly, down the back of the fish near the dorsal spines, and along the bottom of the fish, joining the three cuts together. The skin can be peeled off from the cut closest to the head, or you can continue to cut the fillet away from the body and then cut the fillet from the skin after it has been removed