unclenedsfishfactory.com

Discovery Diving Co., Inc.
Cape Lookout Lionfish Roundup

Greetings!

Wow! We had a great group of 21 people lined up to collect lionfish last Monday and Tues and the weather got us! We were collecting lionfish to eat, fish to go to NOAA for research, fish to Sea Grant for recipe development, 5 boxes of fish to go to high end restaurants in Atlanta, NY, DC, & Chicago. So now we have picked more dates.

They are:

June 1st & 2nd Monday & Tuesday
June 22nd & 23rd Monday & Tuesday
July 27th & 28th Monday & Tuesday
Aug 24th & 25th Monday & Tuesday
Sept 7th & 8th Monday & Tuesday
Sept 28th & 29th Monday & Tuesday

As last weekend we will have a training session for about two hours the night before the first dive. We will dive Monday & Tuesday and have a Lionfish cookout Tuesday night.

Price $350.00 pp
There will be training in catching, cleaning and cooking of the lionfish.

The schedule is:
Meeting 6-8pm Sunday night for orientation/education on Lionfish
7am show time at Discovery Diving for collection dives
4pm fish cleaning demos and practice and packaging to overnight some fish to Atlanta, DC, NY, and Chicago to World class restaurants
7am show time at Discovery Diving for collection dives
4pm fish cleaning and dinner

A program package fee of $350.00 will include charter, seminar, optional lodging, and funding to support organizational staff. Nets, gloves, collecting bags will be supplied for use.



Cape Lookout Lionfish Roundup and ongoing lionfish control studies






Preliminary Overview and Plan

Our goals is to increase public awareness of the indo-pacific lionfish invasion and collaborate with the dive industry in lionfish research and control efforts.

The Indo-Pacific Lionfish (Pterois volitans and P. miles) have become well established in the Caribbean and along the US East Coast including North Carolina. Impacts of this invasion to native fisheries and ecosystems could be severe and more information is needed to better determine these impacts and identify possible solutions. Collaborations between REEF, the dive industry, public aquariums and researchers have proven to be successful in helping to not only educate the public and key user groups, but also to utilize volunteers in gathering important data to satisfy research needs.

The Cape Lookout Lionfish Roundup, will be a collaborative effort between REEF, Discovery Diving Company Center, NOAA's Beaufort lab and the North Carolina Aquarium to implement awareness and training programs and to gather lionfish specimens for use in scientific research. Ongoing, monthly efforts will continue this awareness, training and collection program throughout the NC diving season.

These programs will include:
An evening awareness and training seminar prior to each monthly collection effort.
Organized collection dives at 2 wreck sites and 2 ledges each month.
Lionfish Cook-out and Rodeo competition at the culmination of each project (most fish, largest fish, smallest fish).


Hope to see you for this new event. Call or email now for more info or to sign up.

Sincerely,


Discovery Diving
Discovery Diving Co., Inc.

--------------------------------------------------------------------------------