He is forecast to strengthen back to a storm and maybe even a hurricane but he has gone North and will not bother us down here in Grenada.
So as I was a bit hot this afternoon I went for a snorkel and after taking lots of photos and filling up my camera I saw my first ever lionfish. Natives of the Pacific apparently some escaped from aquariums in Florida during huricane Andrew in 1992 and their population has exploded throughout the Bahamas and the Caribbean as they have no natural predators. However thet are predators on many reef fish so the ecology on many reefs is getting unbalanced. They now have official snorkel / scuba lionfish hunts where they go and kill as many as they can.
Still it was a spectacular looking fish pity I had filled my camera memory so did not get a shot of it. I deleted some but could not find it again.
Pic is from the internet! The one I saw was much darker in colour though.
Lion fish are beautiful, and a good subject for photography as they mostly stay still so we can get very close. Remember they are poisenous so bad news.
ReplyDeleteGood news about Gaston, hopefully the huricane season will slow down a bit.
It did stay still and just looked at me. Does not look like its a fast swimmer so how is it catching and eating all the other reef fish?
ReplyDeleteAll quiet on the Eastern front at the moment.
The only look slow as they do not see us as predators.
ReplyDeleteThey drift over the reef until they get close enough then are very quick over the 10cm or so that they need to snap up shrimp or juvenile fish.
The breed very fast which is a problem.
Apparently they tase good and are easy to catch, just be very careful handeling them until you have removed the dorsal fins.