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: 3, Interesting) by ledow on Friday June 22 2018, @10:30AM (10 children)
Hold on.
You want rid of them.
But they are tasty, edible and readily-available.
Don't just kill them... harvest the damn things and turn them into fish pie (they aren't the prettiest thing to eat, I grant you).
If they were inedible, sure. Cull them, if they are interfering. But if they are edible and in abundance, someone would already be fishing them and selling them on, I'd imagine.
Hell, at one point there were no less than 20 entirely unrelated and dissimilar species of fish being sold as "Cod" for food in the UK and nobody ever noticed.
When you then ramp down to the super-cheap "generic seafood pie", pretty much anything can go.
This is like paying the piper for every bit of cheese he brings you, not rats.
(Score: 1) by Muad'Dave on Friday June 22 2018, @11:15AM (2 children)
They are incredibly harmful, and very prolific. They want to cull them before they get enough of a foothold to be a commercially viable species. Being tasty is just a bonus for those doing the culling.
It's the same story with feral hogs in much of the southern US.
(Score: 2) by bob_super on Friday June 22 2018, @05:09PM
Without needing to go "commercial fishing", not having catch limits is a great way to keep a tasty species close to extinction.
We have plenty of archives to prove it.
(Score: 2) by captain normal on Saturday June 23 2018, @01:02AM
Hey this is right in The Mighty Buzzy's round house. Don't tell me he's out fishing for crappie or catfish. He's needed by his country.
Everyone is entitled to his own opinion, but not to his own facts"- --Daniel Patrick Moynihan--
(Score: 2) by realDonaldTrump on Friday June 22 2018, @11:28AM (5 children)
Sorry folks, I'm just not a fan of lionfish -- and don't worry, they will be around long after we are gone.
(Score: 1, Touché) by Anonymous Coward on Friday June 22 2018, @05:58PM (4 children)
When are you leaving?
(Score: 5, Funny) by realDonaldTrump on Friday June 22 2018, @06:20PM (3 children)
January 20, 2025.
(Score: 0) by Anonymous Coward on Friday June 22 2018, @06:57PM (2 children)
Don't count on that.
(Score: 0) by Anonymous Coward on Sunday June 24 2018, @05:10PM (1 child)
I give it about the same chance as i give Hillary's 95% chance of winning.
That said, i will vote michelle obama if someone can get her to run. How much would it hurt Hillary to see her entire legacy written over by someone who appears to actually be a decent person?
(Score: 0) by Anonymous Coward on Sunday June 24 2018, @09:50PM
She's an old woman with health problems. She may not get to see who becomes the first female POTUS.
(Score: 2) by jimbrooking on Friday June 22 2018, @02:57PM
I've had lionfish filets gently seasoned and cooked over a wood fire. They're delicious!
(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]
(Score: 2) by Aiwendil on Friday June 22 2018, @12:17PM (3 children)
ok, from roe, how long does it take lionfish to grow? I mean, if it is one of those spieces with insanely short timespan they might just have ended up with a remake of how well it worked for the brits to get rid of snakes in India.
And for that matter, how many lionfish does $4500 get you? ;)
(Score: 2) by c0lo on Friday June 22 2018, @12:33PM (2 children)
Growt like in what? Like "until of commercial size" or like "until sexually mature"?
Required culling rate [wikipedia.org]
Lionfish as Food [wikipedia.org]
Now, on the same line, I'd suggest an increased in the quota of Chinese immigration for Florida: the Chinese will eat anything that swims and is not a submarine. They'll make it tasty, too.
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=aoFiw2jMy-0 https://soylentnews.org/~MichaelDavidCrawford
(Score: 3, Informative) by ElizabethGreene on Friday June 22 2018, @05:10PM
Grilled Lionfish is delicious. It's not a trash fish. I'd put it up against any other white fish in a taste test.
As a top predator, it's probably not economical to farm these. They are territorial carnivorous cannibals. Any one of those makes it hard to farm a species. All three makes it extremely difficult.
(Score: 2) by Aiwendil on Friday June 22 2018, @05:58PM
Like in whatever is required for the competition...
(Score: 2, Informative) by Anonymous Coward on Friday June 22 2018, @02:24PM (1 child)
I sense an upcoming occurrence of the Cobra effect:
https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Cobra_effect [wikipedia.org]
(Score: 2) by frojack on Friday June 22 2018, @04:16PM
Well, yes, as long as they recommend eating it, there will be a problem.
Florida has a horrible record trying to control species set loose (for whatever reason) in their ecosystem because there are floods, and waterways that interconnect, and seasonal counter-flows in many of them.
So making a large number of fish available for commercial restaurants will certainly build a market, and someone is certain to start raising them out in the pond on the back acreage. Which will flood. Rinse. Repeat.
Kind of reminds me of the Sea Lamprey invasion of the great lakes. They have been fighting that problem for 50-60 plus years, with
physical barriers, Lamprey specific poisons, etc. They let down their guard and they get a rebound.
https://www.mprnews.org/story/2017/10/31/invasive-sea-lamprey-lake-superior-rebound [mprnews.org]
Customer tailored genetic measures might be a better weapon these days.
No, you are mistaken. I've always had this sig.