Lionfish hunting
The lionfish, native of the Indian and Pacific oceans, fled to the Caribbean 16 years ago after a tropical storm that destroyed an aquarium in Miami. It’s characterized by red, white and black stripes and venomous spiky fins. It may live longer than 15 years reaching sizes exceeding 47cm and 900gr of weight.
Lately they were unintentionally introduced in the Caribbean area becoming an invasive species. The reason to their uncontrolled growing is due to the fact that they don’t have natural predators in this area. Therefore, it has been asked to all divers to kill them anytime seen.
The lionfish is completely unaggressive, and it’s impossible to be attacked by them. However, we need to be careful to not get stung by its spikes. Its venoum is not mortal but can be VERY painful.
We usually hunt them with Hawaiian slings or very small spear guns.
Lionfish meat is DELICIOUS, once you try a fresh lionfish ceviche you won’t eat other kinds of ceviche! And if you don’t like raw fish it’s tasteful even when it’s fried or breaded.
