Finally Back!

UPDATE: I forgot to tell about the poisonous dorsal spines the Lionfish have. They are extremely painful but there has been no reported deaths from the Lionfish.

Hi, I'm Back. After months of trying to fix my old website, I finally gave up and decided to use blogger. Since I was last posting, the Cove resort has a new Manager who has two boys that I've been fishing and diving with a lot. The Cove is a small resort two miles south from my place. Kirk is 13 and Jake is 10. Here's a link to the Cove's website: The Cove

I went scuba diving a little while ago and got some cool pictures. I saw the Lionfish (Pterios volitans) that lives upside down in a small cave by our point.

Lionfish are from the Indo-Pacific. Aquarium owners sometimes let them go when they grow too big or find out they are eating all the other fish. Lionfish have been reported from Florida all the way up to New York and even Bermuda. I've asked a few people how they got to Eleuthera and I've heard this story the most: A person in Spanish Wells (a nearby island) mistakenly let go Lionfish eggs, and they hatched and spread all over the island. It seems unlikely, though, because Lionfish larvae spend a long time in open ocean so the odds of getting back to Eleuthera seem really small.

Here's a link if you want to read more about Lionfish invading the Atlantic: NOAA Lionfish Invasion

Anyway, the Lionfish that lives at the point moved in a few months ago. I went diving a couple days ago and couldn't find him so he must have left. We've been seeing a lot of them lately, I saw one with my mom in our boat and we just speared one at Mutton fish point. (We've been instructed by scientists to kill them.) They're supposed to taste really good but I'm definitely not filleting one.

Below: Lionfish
Cushion seastar

A balloonfish (Diodon Holcanthus), they're not very common
on the Caribbean side. This one was very tame.
Something happened to this Porcupinefish's (Diodon hystrix) eye.
The scrapes on the side of his face are from him not being able to
see where he's going too well. I'm sure the only reason he's alive is
because they don't have any predators.