Bay Islands Lionfish Spearing License
As a marine reserve, it's illegal to spearfish in the Roatan Marine Park. Lionfish are the exception, since they have no natural predators in the Americas and their venomous spines provide a strong defense against potential predators.
The lionfish is a majestic creature. With beautiful coloring and amazing structure, there is something magical about watching a lionfish riding the current off the reef. If you're diving in Southeast Asia or Australia, it's always a delight to see these fish, and as professional divers, we love pointing them out to our guests.
However, as many of you know, lionfish are not endemic to the Caribbean. There are many viable theories as to how they were released, but most point to the private aquarium trade. As a result of them accidentally being released in this area, their numbers have exploded and people all over the Caribbean and Americas are struggling to curb their population.
Photo credit Roatan Marine Park
As a marine reserve, it's illegal to spearfish in the Roatan Marine Park. Lionfish are the exception, since they have no natural predators in the Americas and their venomous spines provide a strong defense against potential predators. As a result, the Roatan Marine Park Invasive Lionfish Control Program was developed as a proactive measure to get the local community, snorkelers, and divers involved in helping curb lionfish numbers in these waters.
To obtain your Bay Islands Lionfish License, you start by attending a workshop conducted by the Roatan Marine Park that teaches you about proper spear usage, education on hunting regulations, and includes an in-water skills assessment using coconuts as target practice. In the water, it's important to demonstrate good spatial awareness and buoyancy, since the purpose of hunting lionfish is to protect the reef, and if you're banging all over it and killing the coral, it defeats the purpose of this program. The Roatan Marine Park Lionfish License is $50 and includes a registered spear, the workshop and your license, which is valid for 2 years. The Roatan Marine Park normally runs these workshops twice a week from their Eco Store in West End based on interest, but they can run special workshops for larger groups as well.
We love it when we hear divers express an interest in lionfish hunting. From eating a tasty sustainable guilt-free fish option to competing in our annual Roatan Lionfish Derby, or for the thrill of the hunt while helping defend the reef, there are so many good reasons to support Roatan's lionfish program. Talk to your dive center and see how you can get involved today!
The Illegal Wildlife Trade
To be responsible tourists, we must make the active effort to think about the local laws and regulations, and expand on that by refraining from supporting the illegal wildlife trade. Think before you buy.
Most of you undoubtedly grew up with your shelves covered in bottles of sand from different parts of the world, elaborate seashells and decorative sea stars and coral displays. I know I did.
The concept of marine conservation did not exist until more recently, and even now, the understanding that shells, sea stars and coral were all living things before they became ornaments is not very well understood by the general public.
So we are going to say this in very plain terms: taking things out of the ocean so you can decorate your hair or your home with it is wrong. If you are visiting a beach and you think it's gorgeous, then let the beach stay gorgeous and leave everything where it is. That sea star? It needs to be underwater to breathe, so holding it up for the camera is slowly killing it. That empty shell? It could be used as a future home for a hermit crab, so please don't leave them homeless.
One time, one of our guests purchased a conch shell from a beach vendor and donated it back to the dive shop after learning about the detrimental effects of removing marine wildlife from the reef. We were then left with a choice: do we return the shell to the ocean in its broken state, where it's no longer a viable home to an animal, or use this as an opportunity to educate? We spoke with one of the coordinators of the Roatan Marine Park, and with their support, determined that education was the way to go.
So, to encourage our guests to think more about the consequences of purchasing marine souvenirs, we set up a "poached display", to which the Roatan Marine Park also kindly donated to from their inventory of confiscated items. To be responsible tourists, we must make the active effort to think about the local laws and regulations, and expand on that by refraining from supporting the illegal wildlife trade. Think before you buy.
Please note that taking any protected marine species off the island is illegal, and customs will confiscate it if they catch you carrying it on the plane. Taking these species out of the water is illegal in and of itself, so taking that conch shell or breaking off that piece of coral off the reef to decorate your hotel room also constitutes an illegal act.
So wherever you go and wherever you live, make sure to respect the culture and the people, but please try to think on an environmental and marine conservation scale as well. If everyone says "no" to the illegal wildlife trade, the illegal trade will disappear, and the environment will thrive.
If you're unsure about what animals are unethically traded or bred (like pangolins, aquarium fish and red coral), make sure to check online. There is a whole wealth of information out there, so ignorance can never be claimed as innocence. The Roatan Marine Park has some great guidelines for responsible tourism, so that's a good place to start before you visit our beautiful island.
We love our planet and want to do right by it, and all it takes is a little bit of mindfulness to make a difference. Join us in taking small steps to make a big impact, and let's make tomorrow better than yesterday was.
PSA: Before You Watch "Finding Dory"
efore you watch Finding Dory and get caught up in the Blue Tang hullabaloo, please remember that Blue Tangs belong in the ocean, not in your personal aquarium.
Well, the day that everyone has been waiting for, for literally years has arrived - Disney Pixar's Finding Dory will soon hit theaters!
Now, based on the trailers, it looks like Finding Dory has a pretty strong anti-captivity message, which we are grateful for. As dive instructors and conservationists (the two should really go hand in hand), it pains us to see animals that don't do well in captivity, like whalesharks and dolphins, held in a confined space. While some aquariums work hard to educate the public and are picky about the animals that they keep in captivity, a great deal are not and will capture anything that brings in customers and money.
So before you watch Finding Dory and get caught up in the Blue Tang hullabaloo, please remember that Blue Tangs belong in the ocean, not in your personal aquarium. Just like Clownfish sales spiked after Finding Nemo came out, the animals featured in Finding Dory, especially the Blue Tang, will be in higher demand. The biggest difference between Clownfish and Blue Tangs is that they still haven't figured out a way to breed Blue Tangs in captivity, so any Blue Tangs that you get for your aquarium will be taken off the reef somewhere, away from where they belong. Blue Tangs have a bigger travel radius than Clownfish do so they don't do well in captivity, and they are incredibly important for coral health because they eat the algae that risks suffocating the coral if left to grow unchecked, so it will be devastating to any reef system to lose them.
So please, if you watch the movie and feel inclined to see more Blue Tangs, go see them in the wild. They're actually very quirky and funny, just like Dory, although hopefully not as forgetful! We love watching the big schools of Blue Tangs descending on the reef and eating up a storm, without a care in the world if anyone else is around. If you love Dory (or Nemo, or Hank, or Destiny, or Bailey), let them just keep swimming!
Always dive with a buddy!
Just because you don't want to see Dory in captivity doesn't mean you can't have fun with it, either! For those of you more inclined to give in to Disney magic, you can also bring Dory diving with you! Nemo and Dory have been our dive buddies for five years now, following us as we dive all around the world. Just keep swimming, indeed.
5 Really Good Reasons To Protect Sharks
As scuba divers, snorkelers, surfers and spearfishermen, we make the active choice to enter their territory and therefore (should) accept the consequences of what happens to us.
We love sharks. Sharks are amazing. And despite the irrational fear that people have of sharks (damn you, Jaws!), sharks would honestly rather do their own thing and are actually afraid of people. I've been on many dives where a shark comes gliding along, minding its own business, then sees me and goes "nope, nope" and jets off in the other direction.
But even if sharks weren't wary of us and even if they weren't misunderstood, who are we to cull them? Who are we to go on a massacre when there's a shark attack somewhere? Aren't we in their territory? Aren't we imposing on them? As scuba divers, snorkelers, surfers and spearfishermen, we make the active choice to enter their territory and therefore (should) accept the consequences of what happens to us.
So without further ado, here are 5 really good reasons why we should protect sharks.
Reason 1. Sharks help maintain the reef
Sharks are an incredibly important part of the ecosystem. They keep the reef eating fish populations in check, which prevent the reef eating fish from overeating the reef. If the sharks go, then the fish populations will run rampant and the reef will get eaten away pretty quickly. The reef actually produces a huge amount of the oxygen in the air that we breathe, so without the reef, on-land populations will die as well. Grim.
Reason 2. Sharks are worth more alive than dead
Studies have shown that the worth of a shark is far more when its alive than when it's dead. While the numbers vary for each location, on average, you get roughly $100 for a dead shark (they normally just take the fins), while a living shark will bring in over 1.5 million dollars over the average lifetime. Sharks are not only good for the reef, they're good for tourism. They're good for local communities. This theory doesn't just apply to sharks, it also applies to pretty much every other animal, both on land and under the sea, like elephants, rhinos, gorillas, whales, turtles, lions...the list goes on.
Reason 3. Shark finning is incredibly cruel
Imagine you're walking down the street, minding your own business, when someone drags you onto a dinghy, cuts your limbs off and leaves you face down in shallow water, shallow enough that you can sort of lift your head out of the water so you don't drown immediately, but still enough water that you will eventually bleed out and drown at the same time. That is the closest thing I can relate to a shark's experience when it gets finned.
With the exception of nurse sharks, all sharks need to be constantly moving forward so that they can push water through their gills and breathe. When sharks are finned, their bodies are pulled up onto the boat, their fins are hacked off and then their bodies are thrown back into the water to leave more space on the boat. The sharks then slowly drown. All of this cruelty for a substance that has no flavor and no nutritional value. Shark fin is cruel and useless.
Reason 4. They're more afraid of you than you are of them
There were 12 fatal shark attacks in 2015. Do you want to know how many sharks we killed that year? Over 100 million. One hundred million sharks. 100,000,000. Versus 12 humans. Are you getting it? And every time there is a shark attack somewhere, we go on a rampage and kill every shark in the area. Why?
Sharks are misunderstood. They genuinely want nothing to do with us. The reason that shark attacks are increasing is because humans have taken a large part of their food supply because of our unsustainable fishing techniques and consumption, and so sharks are now moving closer to land to find food. We are the reason that they are moving closer to shore, and then we get upset when we see them close to shore. Does that make any sense at all?
Reason 5. Sharks are just amazing
Sharks are exquisite animals. They are the best. Hundreds of thousands of years of evolution to create the perfect marine predator, moving effortless through the water. Honestly, watching sharks cruise through the current is an incredibly life affirming event. Sharks are extraordinary, and deserve to be seen as such.
So there you have it, 5 really good reasons why we should protect sharks. I apologize for getting a little heated on this one, but shark conservation is one of the topics I'm most passionate about when it comes to the marine conservation realm. Save our sharks!