Abstract

Indo-Pacific lionfish, Pterois spp., have established themselves in the western Atlantic Ocean and Caribbean Sea, and were first reported around Little Cayman in 2008. Weekly culling efforts focus predominantly on coral reefs and neglect shallow water habitats such as seagrass beds. The efficacy of two trap designs at capturing lionfish near boat docks border-ing seagrass beds was evaluated. Over a 32-day period, two lionfish were captured in small 18 cm minnow traps, and one was captured in a 91 x 61 x 38 cm shaded fish pot. Eight juvenile lionfish were captured using hand nets at the completion of the study. All lionfish captured were sexually immature, had an average total length of 94.55 ± 23.90 mm, and an average weight of 10.75 ± 7.93 g. Minnow traps had an average bycatch incidence of 18.52 ± 7.86% per site with an average of 0.296 ± 0.374 bycatch individuals per trap per day. Shaded fish pots had an average bycatch incidence of 35.54 ± 18% per site with an average of 1.37±1.46 bycatch individuals per trap per day. Lionfish sightings at study sites decreased as water temperatures increased. Results indicate that trapping of lionfish in seagrass habitats using minnow traps or shaded fish pots is not a resource-efficient culling method. The small size and sexual immaturity of the lionfish captured confirms previous observations that juvenile lionfish utilize seagrass beds. The protection of juvenile native species from lionfish predation should be a priority of management goals. Next steps include determining the recruitment rate of juvenile lionfish and investigating the use of aggregating structures to increase the efficiency of hand netting.

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