Dive Fest, when Anse Chastanet and Scuba St Lucia celebrate the underwater world with a week of scheduled boat and shore dives, courses, and photographic competitions—and a lionfish eradication day with a chef’s culinary demonstration and special dinner feast.
Sustainability Organizations
The Monterey Bay Aquarium aids consumers and chefs by recommending more sustainable seafood choices. I work with Seafood Watch along with several other talented chefs on a Blue Ribbon Task Force to share ideas about seafood sustainability and work toward ensuring a future with a healthy ocean.
The Reef Environmental Education Foundation links the diving community with scientists, resource managers, and conservationists through marine life data collection and related activities. They have a lionfish reporting app to collect current data on sightings and work to promote the REEF Invasive Lionfish derbies in Florida and elsewhere.
Complete eradication of lionfish is unlikely, but there is hope that developing better methods for local removal may be the key to controlling them and mitigating further damage. Research projects are attempting to identify the most efficient and cost-effective methods to fish down lionfish numbers so native fish populations can recover and stabilize.
Lionfish traps have been mostly ineffective in capturing the predators. However, organizations such as the Lionfish University are working with NOAA and other partners to develop new lionfish trapping devices that only attract lionfish so as not to harm native species. These model traps are being tested at much deeper water depths than those divers can access safely. Currently, fish traps are generally prohibited in US federal waters in the Gulf of Mexico and South Atlantic. With a clear preservation mission, this nonprofit is designing prototypical traps that will not damage the fragile ecosystem surrounding the reefs.
Safe Handling
Use care when handling lionfish, as they have up to eighteen venomous spines that can cause painful stings on their dorsal, pelvic, and anal fins. Stings can result in swelling, blistering, dizziness, necrosis, and even temporary paralysis. If stung, immerse the wound in hot (not scalding) water for thirty to ninety minutes and seek medical attention if necessary.
Filleting a lionfish is like filleting any other type of fish except for the need to use caution to avoid the spines located along the dorsal, pelvic, and anal fins. If you put the fish on its side, you can easily hold it by the bony gill plates or soft pectoral fins without getting stuck with a venomous spine. One safety precaution is to wear puncture-resistant gloves. Some also choose to cut off the spines prior to filleting. Use care when doing this as the venomous glandular tissues located within the grooves of the spines are present even at the base of the spine. Furthermore, the venom can remain active in the spines even after the lionfish is dead and stored on ice.
Once you’ve gotten the spines under control, fillet as you would any other fish, making incisions just behind the spines on the head down to the belly, down the back of the fish near the dorsal spines, and along the bottom of the fish, joining the three cuts together. The skin can be peeled off from the cut closest to the head, or you can continue to cut the fillet away from the body and then cut the fillet from the skin after it has been removed from the body.
Lionfish by the Numbers
1.EAT THEM TO BEAT THEM.
2.Lionfish reach adult size in approximately two years.
3.The largest record lionfish measured a little over 47.7 cm or 19.5 inches and was speared near Islamorada, Florida.
4.In lab studies, lionfish die when water temperatures reach 50 degrees Fahrenheit or 10 degrees Celsius.
5.Lionfish have been visually sighted down to depths of 1,000 feet or 305 meters.
6.Female lionfish are sexually mature and will release eggs when they reach seven to eight inches in length or at approximately one year old.
7.A female lionfish can release between 12,000 and 15,000 unfertilized eggs every four days year round, or approximately two million eggs per year, in warm Caribbean waters.
8.A lionfish’s stomach can expand to up to thirty times its normal volume.
9.A lionfish can eat prey that is just over half its own body size if it can get its mouth around the prey.
10.Lionfish are known to eat just about every marine creature in their range, including over seventy different fish, invertebrates, and mollusks.
11.A single lionfish may reduce the number of juvenile native fish on any given reef by approximately 79 percent in just five weeks.
12.Lionfish have eighteen venomous spines that are capable of easily penetrating human skin and delivering a very painful sting. Thirteen of these spines are located along the spine in the dorsal fins; there is one short spine in the leading edge of each of the pelvic fins, and there are three short spines in the leading edge of the anal fin. The venom is a protein-based combination of a neuromuscular toxin and a neurotransmitter called acetylcholine. The venom can be denatured (or rendered inert) by applying heat or freezing.
13.Recommended first aid for lionfish stings and envenomation include surfacing safely from a dive, removing any broken spines, and disinfecting the wound, then applying non-scalding hot water for thirty to ninety minutes. Monitor for signs of allergic reaction or shock and react accordingly. Seek medical treatment immediately.
14.There have been zero known human fatalities due to a lionfish envenomation.
15.Yes, you can eat lionfish. They are not poisonous!
Chef…is it safe and is it delicious? This was the thought running through the minds of a dozen of my chef friends when I asked them to collaborate on this sustainable seafood cookbook focused on lionfish by sharing a soulful Caribbean-inspired lionfish recipe. I am humbled by the amazing and rapid responses I received from these chefs, who care greatly about fish cookery and seasonal freshness. These chefs know their fish and are happy to help you eat sustainably.
Sustainable seafood, in simple terms, suggests the intent to make sure that there are enough fish in the sea to maintain a natural balance and sustain life for centuries to come. This includes rivers, streams, lakes, bays, reefs, gulfs, seas, and oceans. It is our hope that our grandkids and their grandkids can enjoy the wonders of nature and have the choice of eating wild fresh fish. You can make that choice today.
I have added recipes to each chapter from a group of very talented chefs and personal friends who are taking a leadership role and making a sustainable statement through their cooking.
Fish cookery is not just for chefs. Anyone can cook fish. It may take some nerve and some practice, but you will learn that it is worth every delicious bite. In fact, some of these chefs had never even tasted lionfish until I introduced it to them. I would like to note here that most of the recipes are for lionfish; nonetheless, these flavors and cooking techniques can be applied to most fish and shellfish. Go for what is freshest.
I introduced lionfish to the culinary world a few years ago in Florida. I had occasionally cooked the fish at Chef
