Abstract

The emergence of lionfish as a bycatch species in deep water fishing grounds of the commercial spiny lobster fishery indicates a need to extend the efforts to monitor and cull lionfish present to deep water habitats. Catch data was collected from a commercial lobster vessel to determine the geographic distribution, length frequency, catch rates of lionfish, as well as the potential impacts on lobster catch rates. Locations and depths were recorded for each trap sampled; and each organism caught was identified and measured. Lionfish were present in 21.4% of the traps; with mean catch rate of 0.38 fish/trap. Mean catch rates of legal lobsters decrease from 1.82 to 0.59/trap when lionfish are present. Traps provide a low effort/high yield option for culling lionfish in deeper waters that are not targeted by normal removal efforts. While this method could be helpful in reducing lionfish numbers, lionfish presence leads to reduce lobster catch rates, negatively impacting fisher profits.

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