Page 116 - South Mississippi Living - August, 2017

SPORTS & OUTDOORS beauty and beast
Lionfish
story and photo by
Frank Wilem
ScW
ourge of the Sea
ith long feather-like fins that wave about in the current and bold black and white stripes, lionfish are truly beautiful. But they come with a weapon. Their 18 needle-like dorsal fins are
year!”
As one of
the world’s most
aggressively invasive
species, lionfish are well established in our waters.
Jason Jones was snapper fishing in the northern Gulf when he reeled up a lionfish — a BIG one. “I’d never
seen a lionfish so I wasn’t sure what it was at first. But Mark Miller pegged it as a record breaker that broke the Mississippi state record and tied the IGFA all tackle world record.”
On a recent episode of Gulf South Outdoors, Dawn Cook discussed two theories as to how the fish ended up in
our waters. “One possibility is when Hurricane Andrew destroyed an aquarium in southern Florida, a half-dozen lionfish were released into Biscayne Bay. But the more likely source of the problem is aquarium owners who released lionfish when they grew too big for their tank.”
Lionfish have a delicate, white flesh. I’ve tried eating lionfish with a “King of the jungle sushi roll” and Thomas Genin at the Blind Tiger recently smoked some for us. Give ‘em a try.
chock full of venom and their sting is quite painful. Just ask Bob Brown with the Deepwater Mafia who had a nasty encounter with one while diving.
The sting was “like a wasp but lasted much longer with severe swelling,” Bob said about the sting. “And mine came back ten days afterward.” Definitely something to be avoided.
Luckily, the fish only use their spines defensively so if you stay away from them, you’re safe. Since the poison is isolated to the spines, the fish is rendered safe to be handled by simply clipping off the fins.
But the fact that lionfish are poisonous is not the biggest concern. They’re voracious eaters that eat up to 7,000 pounds of prey per acre per year. And according to Dawn Cook with Adventure Locators, they breed at an incredible rate. “A single fish can release up to 2 million eggs each
Frank Wilem is the Executive Producer/Co-Host of Gulf South Outdoors which airs Sundays at 9:30 a.m. on WXXV Fox 25 and Hook It & Cook It which airs Saturdays at 10:00 p.m. on WXXV NBC.
Visit www.GulfSouthOutdoors.com for more information.
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