Belize Day Ten: Island Fun

Though we did a lot today, my favorite activities were spear-fishing lionfish, dissecting them, and doing reef data transects.  There is something so satisfying about letting go of that cocked spear and seeing it hit its mark.  It is not the most humane way to kill something unless you’re perfect aim, which I am not, but it is very effective. 

Lionfish are originally from the Indonesian island area and made it into the waters off the coast of Florida by different human-interference means.  Now they are decimating the native juvenile fish populations all the way from North Carolina to the coasts of Brazil.  The ultimate answer for the problem will be nature, as it will always find a balance, but we can still do a little bit of our part.  Apparently for every one lionfish we kill, we save 30,000 other fish! 

This fact was driven home during our catch dissections- we pulled an 8cm juvenile stoplight parrotfish from a 23cm lionfish!  They’ll eat fish a third their own size and have very few predators.  These two characteristics enable them to proliferate like mad.  And like mad they do.  A student and I speared nine lionfish out of a single coral overhang today.  Jayson, the island’s superb marine biologist, comes back every boat trip with a bag full.  Might as well be a little inhumane with a spear, save some of the indigenous fish, and put the invasive species to good, as the cooks did by making us some delicious lionfish tenders for dinner.

Ultimately, the island staff are keeping a close eye on the health of the ecosystem as a whole, not just the effects of the lionfish.  In the afternoon, guests that had a desire to participate were able to join in on a scientific reef study.  We were put into pairs and dived transect lines while recording fish and invertebrate species, as well as the type of substrate along the bottom.  The information produced from civilian scientist like this is essential for monitoring the health of the local systems, as the manpower here, and in most places around the world, is limited.  We were able to give back while also gaining more knowledge and skill for ourselves.  Not surprisingly, it was another great and eventful day on the island.  

Lionfish egg sack

Stoplight juvenile parrotfish 1/3 the body length of the lionfish that ate it.

Practicing underwater navigation onland first.

There's a massive moray eel that has been living under the dock the whole time we've been here and nobody told us until Jason started cleaning fish and it came out to see what was going on.  None of us, including Michelle, had ever seen an eel that aggressive.

Seb pointing out research techniques to me.  I didn't go to school for ecology, I have no idea what's going on, thank you computer guy for showing me how it's done.