For the last 10 days or so I have been incommunicado while hunting lionfish in the waters off of Eleuthera in the Atlantic ocean and then awkwardly making my way home.
In short, the stories are true. All of the places where I dove contained far fewer native fish then I had hoped to see in the Bahamas. There were thick schools of tiny baitfish and the occasional blue tang, but altogether the fish population did not look especially healthy. The first area I hunted along some cliffs, caves and rock ledges was an especially sobering example. I would say that about 40% of the fish that I saw in that area which were over 2 inches long were invasive lionfish.
The first sightings of lionfish around Eleuthera were only about 5 years ago and in that time they have come absolutely dominate certain types of rock and reef structure. Fully grown groupers will sometimes eat them, but it is apparently more common for lionfish to eat immature grouper.
As you can see in this video that I recorded with Maurice 'Mojo' White and Joey (I'm not sure which one of us was holding the camera for this clip), lionfish don't give ground to much of anything. Watch how it sits right there in front of its crevice even as a diver is right in front of it and thrusting a spear at it. The lionfish has venomous spikes sticking out all around the front of it. An array of hypodermic needles that will either kill or badly hurt almost anything that decides to pick a fight.
While that behavior illustrates one of the reasons why lionfish have been able to quickly dominate this habitat (lack of natural parasites in the Atlantic is probably another reason), it also comes in real handy when you are hunting them. They won't generally spook off unless you injure them with the spear.
The lionfish tasted really good. I've got loads of video of the whole trip and process of hunting, cooking and eating them and at some point soon it will be edited into a proper little documentary. I was surprised at how good they really are. Most any fish is going to be edible and most anything that moves can be turned into a serviceable meal. But lionfish really is, hands down, one of the best-tasting invasive species that I have pursued so far during this project. It ties with really well-handled Canada goose.
The texture is superior to Chilean sea bass and I think that lionfish represent a viable alternative to much of the ill-gotten Chilean sea bass that is on the market today.
I have already started taking steps to organize an event in NYC to introduce the ingredient to chefs, fish mongers and food writers. There is already a large wholesale fish distribution system stretching from the Bahamas up to the east coast of the US. If spiny lobsters and conch can be moved through this system, then lionfish can be moved to market as well. If we give those local fishermen an economic incentive to take lionfish then we can literally eat our way out of this ecological disaster.
In spite of the idyllic location, this trip was not an easy one and was probably my most challenging trip for this book so far. I spent a full day laying dizzy on the floor of Mojo's surf shack, alone in the dark with no electricity, dry-heaving with some type of poisoning from bad water. A Jeep that I was riding in broke down on the highway. Friends and I spent the rest of that day getting the Wrangler towed out by a mid-sized SUV with a hemp rope. The other car steered while we worked the brakes in the Jeep. During prolonged dives I threw out my right knee, which occasionally pops out of place and sent me collapsing to the ground a few times in airports during my epic journey home after being abandoned by Delta in a foreign country with no money or transportation. Somehow I ended up spending an afternoon washing dishes at a bar, which actually wasn't such a bad time since they kept bringing me rum and Cokes.
On the other hand, I had help whenever I asked for it from the extraordinarily kind Bahamian locals and American ex-pats. Both the good and bad were everything that a travel writer could hope for, in terms of good fodder for this new book.
7 comments:
Great post. Were you concerned about the reef fish toxin (I forget what it's called)? I was told not to eat local fish in the Virgin Islands because of it.
Alex,
Nah. I talked to a bunch of local fishermen who gave me good advice about what fish to be worried about that with, and at what size to be worried. For example, they tell me that a barricuda carrying that toxin will always be over 3 feet long and will be on its own, rather than in a school. And if you really aren't sure, they say that if you put it on the land for a few minutes and watch the flies then you will know whats what. Flies won't land on a fish carrying the toxin, so the locals say.
Your mileage may vary.
Worst cameraman ever. But good story.
Was diving in Roatan (Honduras) a month or so ago and found many lionfish during the course of 15 dives.
No one there suggested eating them but said the dive masters would go after them if you told them where you saw them.
As for making them a popular menu item, an observation: If a significant market appears, fishermen won't buy them from reef hunters, they'll buy them from people who will begin to farm them, thus generating more lionfish than removing them from reefs. Just an observation. Yeah, I don't like it, either.
I think the commenter meant that restaurant suppliers would buy them from fish farms rather than sport or even commercial divers.
Suppose you could require suppliers to get them from divers, though.
Anonymous 10:34,
Farming probably wouldn't work and in terms of price, it wouldn't be desirable for years anyway.
Understand that there are already spear fishermen in these waters who are commercially harvesting spiny lobster, grouper and conch by hand. This is where Red Lobster gets almost all of the lobster that they sell. The economics of this type of harvesting are already proven to be commercially viable. There is already a wholesale system reaching from these fishermen to the US.
I don't think that lionfish could be farmed on a commercially viable scale. Once mature, they become very territorial. If you watch them in the wild you will see that they are 'defenders of material resources.' They stake out a territory with the right structure and food available and they fight any other lionfish that gets too close. Those who have kept them in aquariums will tell you that they will readily kill each other.
You just cannot raise these things to edible size in close proximity to one another. Farming won't work.
All interesting. Didn't know that about Red Lobster. Seems hard to believe, given the size of that chain, but I bow to your obvious expertise, Jack.
Given the threat of the lion fish, I would support these underwater hunter/gatherers in efforts to control the population. I've dived all over the Caribbean and have had no trouble finding them. They seem to be everywhere.
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