I am vegan myself; for both animal rights, and ecological reasons; so it might strike ppl as weird for me to so frequently promote the killing of (invasive) animals.

The lionfish extermination corp are a group of a handful of divers that exclusively hunt the invasive lionfish off the coasts of florida. They either feed the fish to other native species, or sell them to seafood shops, as lionfish venom is safe to eat.

While research in certain areas suggest diver culling is working on at least mitigating the ecological impact of the fish. Other areas, and other research suggests it is not (or at best, has inconclusive effects.) However it really is the only way to cull the population reliably. I just feel i need to point that out too, given i am promoting the practice.

There is also potential in trying to teach sharks they can potentially hunt lionfish, thus kind of engaging the extant ecology to hunt these fish that otherwise have no predators. The exterminaton corp do this as well; with sharks they are familiar with. But the venemous frills and spines make it dangerous and difficult for sharks to bite, and thus difficult to incentivize the change in predation.

Anyway this is one of the diver's YouTube channels that I had heard about them from. The naration is lovely, and focuses on many diverse animals in the reefs, as much as it does on hunting lionfish.

Cw: fish killing, kinda violently.

https://youtu.be/vfo-gcuKxoc?si=f-kuUSQo0eLgjMgG