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Wanted dead, not alive: the lionfish. You can make $5,000 if you get rid of them
How sick of the lionfish is the Florida Fish and Wildlife Conservation Commission?
Enough so to offer you up to $5,000 to catch the nasty critters and get them out of Florida waters.
The FWC's Lionfish Removal and Awareness Day Challenge, running through Labor Day on Sept. 3, calls on both recreational and commercial fishermen and women to harvest lionfish and submit photos of the first 25 lionfish.
After the first 25, you have to submit tails for the chance to collect the top prize.
[...] Over the last five years, some dozen South Florida restaurants began serving lionfish on their menus because the delicate, flaky fish, often compared to hogfish and snapper, is a taste treat.
(Score: 4, Insightful) by looorg on Friday June 22 2018, @12:10PM (9 children)
This just seems all kind of weird. It's competition, or more like a lottery since not everyone will get $5000. The rules seem very easy to abuse, catch 1 fish and take 25 pictures of it in slightly different poses and then chop of the tail so you have submitted 26 fish by just catching one of them. Next questions is how much is it to buy on lionfish? It might be profitable to just buy them to "catch" them. After that just turn around and BBQ them since apparently they are delicious, or sell your fishes to a restaurant that does it.
They really had to point out that women can or are allowed to fish to? Seriously?
(Score: 3, Funny) by coolgopher on Friday June 22 2018, @12:55PM (1 child)
Well not everyone can be in the front roe...
(Score: 3, Funny) by frojack on Friday June 22 2018, @03:37PM
That's a pretty bad chum, friend.
No, you are mistaken. I've always had this sig.
(Score: 2) by terrab0t on Friday June 22 2018, @01:03PM (3 children)
People cheating the entry system won’t matter much because the Florida Fish and Wildlife Conservation Commission are already running their own psychological scam; and it’s a common one.
Instead of paying people to catch these fish, they are dangling an attractive prize in front of every amateur fisherman in Florida. Those fishermen may have a one in a million chance of getting that prize, but most of them will only think about how great it would be to get their hands on $5000.00 and they’ll be motivated to catch some lionfish.
I’m sure they know many people will cheat the entry system, but they’re already cheating by fooling people into doing work for only a small chance of payment.
It’s the contest scam. It’s very common, and it works.
(Score: 0) by Anonymous Coward on Friday June 22 2018, @02:34PM
A scam involves deception. I don't think the Florida Fish and Wildlife Conservation Commission is lying about existence of the prizes, or the rules of the contest, or anything relevant?
(Score: 0) by Anonymous Coward on Friday June 22 2018, @02:55PM
exactly what i was thinking. industry that will be devastated by lionfish need to get together (i guess they could involve the park pigs if they must) and pay for a year round program to reimburse people a reasonable amount of money for every lionfish carcass/tail whatever that they bring in to a participating fish counter. instead we get this stupid bullshit.
(Score: 4, Insightful) by krishnoid on Friday June 22 2018, @10:06PM
It seems like a really bad idea [wikipedia.org] for amateurs to be handling these. But then again, Florida.
(Score: 1, Interesting) by Anonymous Coward on Friday June 22 2018, @01:56PM (1 child)
In the contest description there is no mention of the venom/poison spines on this fish. I wonder how many ignorant fisher-folk will be stung and/or injured?
(Score: 0) by Anonymous Coward on Friday June 22 2018, @04:46PM
They do have an article on lionfish [myfwc.com] linked from the contest rules which includes (among other things) fishing tips, filleting instructions, and a safety note:
(Score: 0) by Anonymous Coward on Friday June 22 2018, @09:36PM
https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Cobra_effect [wikipedia.org]