Bounty payment has precedent
Two
members of the Cayman Islands Legislative Assembly are preparing a solution to the lionfish problem in local waters.
The representatives of North Side and East End, Ezzard Miller and Arden McLean, respectively, plan to take a Private Member’s Motion to the LA calling for payment of a bounty on the invasive species that is threatening the marine environment in Cayman.
Mr. Miller told residents at a North Side District Council meeting Thursday night that he and Mr. McLean thought the reward money could be paid from the accumulated $40 million in the Environmental Protection Fund.
The fund was set up by government in 1997 to acquire land for conservation purposes and other environmental projects. According to the 2011/2012 Annual Plan and Estimates, the fund contained $39.8 million and receives between $4 million and $5 million a year, gathered through departure taxes charged to travellers leaving Cayman via the airport or cruise ship terminal.
Mr. Miller said there are many Caymanians who know the coastal waters. Instead of taking conch and lobster, they could make money taking lionfish. He suggested $2 per fish head, with the fishermen earning more for their work by selling the rest of the fish to local restaurants.
If $2 does not attract sufficient interest, he would have no problem raising the reward, he said. Mr. Miller suggested fishermen could even be assisted with getting equipment, if necessary.
The motion, which is still being drafted, will ask the Department of Environment to develop an appropriate programme, he said.
With their ability and the right incentive, the fishermen of North Side and East End could “clean out” lionfish in that area in a matter of two or three months, he said.
The lionfish problem has been around almost four years. In July 2008, the Compass ran an article headlined “Lionfish a threat to marine life”. It began: Marine enthusiasts are being urged to lookout for the Red Lionfish, an invasive species of fish native to the Indian and Pacific oceans that has made its way to the Atlantic.
The article quoted the Department of Environment’s reasons why the beautiful fish are so dangerous. They are ravenous predators, known to eat juvenile fish and crustaceans in large quantities; they are not known to have any native predators; they have venomous spines for deterring predators, which can also cause painful wounds to humans; they are capable of reproducing year-round with unique reproduction mechanisms rarely found in native fish. They can reproduce at 1 to 2 years old; they are relatively resistant to parasites, another advantage over native species; they grow fast, outpacing native species with whom they compete for food and space.
At the time, fishermen were asked to not try to catch the fish, but report sightings of it. If they did catch one by mistake, they were asked to place it in a container and call the DoE to collect it.
The DoE began running lionfish culling courses in March 2009, issuing attendees with a culling licence on completion. Last summer, the DoE and Marine Conservation Board gave their approval to a speciality course for scuba divers taught by some local water sports operators on tracking the lionfish.
There have been organised hunts and tournaments. At least since early 2010 cooking instructions and recipes have been published to encourage lionfish consumption.
Payment for getting rid of a pest has at least two local precedents. North Side farmer Willie Ebanks recalled in an interview with the Observer on Sunday that the agouti, or local rabbit, was at one time considered a vermin because of the damage the animal did to crops. The parrot was a pest because of the fruit it destroyed.
He said government paid farmers and licensed gun owners six pence per parrot head and one and six pence for an agouti head.
It could not be determined by press time when the bounty ended. But National Hero Sybil McLaughlin told an Observer reporter how she began employment with the government as clerk-typist in 1945.
“My first job was counting rabbit heads.” At the time rabbits ran rife on Grand Cayman and those who hunted them received a monetary reward from the government for every head they brought in, she said.
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The LA better pass this one.
Finally, the aprrorpiate money being spent for the appropriate task.
Controlling the lionfish population and providing employment for those who are willing to work for it.
While I applaud the Cayman government’s support of attempts to control the invasive lionfish that re eating our fish, I don’t want to see 40 million spent on this. I know the DoE and the national Trust of the Cayman Islands have lists of land that is critical to protect (which usually means purchase) various indigenous species. How about spending some of the 40 million on that? I thought that was what the 40 million was collected to do. Fish are not the only important part of our ecosystem.
In order to rid our waters of this invasive species, more needs to be done than just cull the population from the waters. Part of the Lion fish life cycle occurs in deep waters, much deeper than any man can dive to go cull the population. If we were to wipe the population out on the reef, they will just be re-introduced from the deeper waters surrounding our island– where these fish also live.
This is an issue that is unique to the lion fish that wasn’t present with the agouti or the parrot. Those animals live on land, where the entire population could be accessed and reduced. Their population reduction was possible because there were no near reservoirs for their re-introduction into the local eco-system.
Something needs to be done to address not only the population on the reef, but also the deep water population that will be around to re-introduce the invasive species.