Spear a Lionfish and Spare the Reef
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14 *** Saturday 19 December 2020 The Daily Telegraph Caribbean Travel on trial Spear a lionfish and spare the reef Amber Gibson tries THE her hand at culling VERDICT this beautiful but Instruction ***** deadly predator in the Captain Don Mitchell is the waters off Dominica best – he made me feel safe, ave you ever been stung by a even cutting bee?” asks Captain Don the poisonous ‘HMitchell, a local Dominican spikes off for fisherman. “Imagine that pain but me once we three times worse. You’ll be crying for had caught your mama.” This is his way of warning our fish. me to never touch the lionfish we are about to hunt, for fear of being stung Sustainability• by one of their 18 venomous spikes. **** “Once I was stung under my nail, and When so many it turned black and fell off.” endemic reef With my 5ft-long yellow pole spear, fish are also known as a Hawaiian sling, it is overfished, it Scuba divers are joining free-divers like easy to keep my distance. These three- feels good to Amber in hunting predatory lionfish, above pronged spears are more precise than try a local spear guns and less harmful to the delicacy that’s ing just two – enough for lunch after delicate coral reefs where lionfish con- also a pest. It’s chef Fábio Fernandes teaches me how gregate. If I miss and hit the reef, it a small to debone and fillet the tricky fish. would leave three small indentations gesture, but Secret Bay was the first hotel in while a spear gun could destroy a cen- reminds us to Dominica to launch a cook-your-catch tury’s worth of coral in one misfire. be thoughtful experience and thus far its guests have Even before Mitchell mentions the about our food caught more than 900 fish since the poison, I am nervous about spearfish- choices in resort’s reopening after Hurricane ing. I’ve never tried free diving before everyday life. Maria in November 2018. My 10-inch and the most shallow area we could lionfish had just eaten lunch itself – we hunt in was 30ft deep. Mitchell is a pro • find a small brown chromis swallowed though. He tells me he has caught Adrenalin whole in its stomach. 6,384 lionfish in his lifetime and holds rush They are bony and difficult to clean, the Dominican record for the largest **** and there’s not as much meat on them lionfish caught – nearly 17 inches. Sev- The thrill of as you might expect. The flesh is very eral times a month, he takes guests diving down tasty though, firm and a little chewy from Secret Bay, Dominica’s most so deep and when raw, delicious dressed with a exclusive resort, out to try their luck. facing your simple soy and papaya sauce. Once “On all my lionfish tours, there has prey up close cooked, the mild white fish is very ver- always been lionfish on the plate after- and personal satile and a great substitute for is akin to wards,” Mitchell reassures me. He LAPLANTE COREY AMBER GIBSON; IMAGES; GETTY grouper, cod or snapper. takes me to his secret spot after I hunting by If our hours-long effort yielded only promise not to share the location. first few attempts are weak. I can’t get all bow and two fish, are we making any difference “I call it my honey hole,” he says. It is likely that lionfish the way down to where the lionfish are arrow. We though? A single female lionfish can Lionfish normally feed in the morning hiding and come gasping to the surface. certainly spawn more than two million eggs and late afternoon and these are the inspired the idiom “That was good, you were halfway earned our annually, reproducing roughly every best times to find them lazily nestled ‘shooting fish in a barrel’. there,” says Mitchell. His words of lunch. four days. Even if we were all as pro- within coral coves. encouragement are demoralising • lific hunters as Mitchell, the battle For a decade, since the flamboyantly though; I thought I was just a couple of Best-laid seems futile. “We cannot win the war,” striped, spiky fish started to proliferate They aren’t very bright feet away. Apparently, I had no depth plans he says, “but we can control them.” on reefs, lionfish hunting has been perception underwater. It’s the diving **** encouraged by the Dominican govern- won last year by catching 82 lionfish in part that’s hard. Shooting them isn’t You’ll want to Two- to three-hour lionfish-hunting ment. The invasive species has no two hours. hard at all once I finally make it down. It book at least a experience at Secret Bay (villas from predators, and its presence reduces I hop in first with a life jacket to get my is likely that lionfish inspired the idiom day in £784; secretbay.dm) £120 per couple. biodiversity and destroys the delicate bearings and practice swimming with a “shooting fish in a barrel”. They aren’t advance, since In-villa catch-and-cook experience coral ecosystem. There is no limit spear. Then it is time to practice diving. very bright, and will stare you right in the experience £320. Flights via Barbados with on the number of lionfish you can Mitchell gives me several pointers – turn the eye as you point the spear at their is dependent British Airways and interCaribbean catch and you don’t need a permit. your brain off, ignore your instinct to head. You want to get as close as possi- on weather Airways from £1,579pp (ba.com). Every January, locals host a spearing breathe, lay horizontally, tip yourself ble, mere inches away, before shooting. conditions. Overseas holidays are currently subject competition which Mitchell’s sister Spearfishing adventure? Amber Gibson didn’t get cold feet down and use your fins to descend. My I am more than satisfied with catch- to restrictions. See Page 3..