Inside Look: Training Sharks to Eat Lionfish

Controlling Invasive Lionfish in the Caribbean - A New Meal for Sharks?

Text and Photos By Antonio Busiello

Lionfish have the potential to become the most disastrous marine invasion in history. 

Lionfish are native to the Pacific and Indian Oceans. With no natural predators in the Atlantic, lionfish populations have exploded throughout the waters of the Caribbean and U.S. in recent years. Biologists and scientists all around the Caribbean are working with the local Marine Parks trying to find a solution for stopping this impending epidemic. On the Island of Roatan in Honduras, local divemasters are even trying to train sharks to include lionfish in their diet. Although endangered themselves, sharks in the Caribbean may help keep the population of lionfish under control, providing yet another reason to protect the beautiful predators.

I have been working with park officials and local divers in documenting the attempt to teach sharks how to eat lion fish, and eventually to include them in their diet. They think that If these predators start to see lionfish as prey, eventually the lionfish may be kept under control as a part of the ecosystem. 

About Lionfish

Lionfish can take over seafloor and reef habitat and establish densities of more than 200 adults per acre. A mature female lionfish produces some two million eggs every year, and those eggs and larvae are carried far and wide by currents—fuelling an ongoing invasion.

George Burgess, director of shark research at the Florida Museum of Natural History, calls them the "Norwegian rats of the sea."

Eating & Hunting Lionfish

Roatan Marine Park has also made efforts to put lionfish on the menu and make people aware that they can cook and eat them, another idea for keeping the population in check. The fish are said to be tasty once their venomous spines are removed.

Harpoons and spears are illegal under Honduran fishing laws, hovewer the park has acquired an exception to arm trained and licensed divers with fishing spears called Hawaiian Slings. Their sole aim is spearing the invasive lionfish, and local humans are doing as much lionfish hunting as we hope the sharks will. During a competition organized by the park, more than 1,700 lionfish were killed and cooked in a single day. One diver with a rubber band spear gun was able to kill 60 by himself. They really are everywhere.

The spearfishers began feeding the lionfish to sharks, and after a while we saw a shark actually hunting a lionfish and eating it! This spawned the idea and shows the exact hunting behavior that those involved with the Roatan project hope will catch on. Ian Drysdale of Healthy Reefs hopes that sharks are getting a taste for lionfish and will take to hunting them on their own without any human intervention.

Shooting the Photos

It was very hard for me to get these images. I shoot with a 10.5 fisheye and had to work very close to the action. Sharks get very aggressive during feeding frenzies and I found myself in thrilling situations a couple of times.

I hope this project will catch on and that the lionfish will be kept under control by local predators, just like in Pacific and Indian Oceans.

About the Author

Antonio Busiello is an award-winning documentary and fine art photographer. A native of Italy, he studied anthropology at the University of Naples and then started traveling the world to focus on photography. Now with home bases in London and Florence he continues his storytelling through photography.  www.antoniobusiello.com

SPARS

Maui’s dolphin

World’s smallest and rarest dolphin

 The New Zealand Department of Conservation recently expanded the existing ban on set net fishing off the west coast of the North Island by an additional 350 square kilometers in an effort to reverse the decline in numbers of Maui’s dolphin.  The Maui’s dolphin is the world’s smallest and rarest dolphin.  The adult female is about six feet in length and weighs just over 100 pounds, with the male generally being slightly smaller.  The Maui’s dolphin is found only along the west coast of New Zealand’s North Island, although historical evidence shows that it previously also resided on the Island’s east coast.  It is a subspecies of the larger Hector’s dolphin, which is found primarily in coastal waters of the South Island.  It is estimated that there are only about 55 adult Maui’s dolphins.  Other than their small size, they are most easily recognized by their rounded dorsal fins.  With gray, white, and black markings and short snouts, they generally congregate in pods of five or six.  Like other cetaceans, they use echolocation to navigate, communicate, and hunt for food.  They feed primarily on small fish, squid, and bottom-dwelling species.  Maui’s dolphins have a life expectancy of about 25 years.  Females become sexually mature at about age eight, giving birth to one calf about every three years.  They have no known predators, but are subject to disease and are sometimes entangled in fishing nets.  The Maui’s dolphin is listed in the New Zealand Threat Classification System as “Nationally Critical” – the most endangered rating.  Conservationists fear that, unless additional protection measures are adopted, Maui’s dolphin will be extinct within 20 years.

Lionfish Stings in Divers