The lionfish is native to the Pacific Ocean. A couple of decades or so ago it is believed that someone in our neck of the woods threw a couple, or maybe an aquarium full of lionfish into the Caribbean. These truly beautiful little creatures have caused problems ever since. In the Pacific, lionfish have predators. In the Caribbean however, predators are few. Couple that with the fact that lionfish are voracious eaters, and that's where the problem begins. Reefs are being decimated by them.

For a number of years dive operators have taken a vigilante approach. They catch the feathery looking little devils, place them in a sack, and then tell the tourist divers that they're taking them to a nature reserve or some such nonsense. Pro Divers in Bassetere, Saint Kitts have tackled the problem in a more truthful manner. 
 
We were a little better than 25 metres deep when Austin, our dive guide, took the seven foot long, three pronged rod he was carrying, poked it under a rock and came out with a skewered lionfish. Wicked sport, I thought. Then he extended the rod beyond the length of his outstretched arm. Within seconds a shark peeled the lionfish off the prongs in the same way we humans might attack a swizzle sticked olive that had been lifted from the bottom of an icy martini. It seemed that under every rock was a lionfish in waiting. I got so excited by the insanity that at times I think I was closer to the hungry sharks than Austin, the feeder. When it was all said and done who knows how many sharks had eaten probably a couple of dozen lionfish. It wasn't the most beautiful dive, but it was my most exciting.       


Limited distribution: Sent after our return to Toronto