Happy Nice Mall

The silence under the water is overwhelming. Time passes quickly. Once I have identified my target, I focus heavily on it knowing that if I miss and the animal runs away, it can learn from the encounter and hunting may be more difficult in the future.

As I approach, armed with my spear, I watch the fish open its large pectoral fins and display its venomous spines. (Slow and easy to spot, he relies on this frightening spectacle to deter potential predators.) I take aim, retract the spring-loaded handle of my spear, and let the gun fly.

I learned to freedive and fish underwater as a kid, but spearfishing doesn’t excite me anymore. As an adult I became interested in marine biology and underwater photography and eventually swapped out my childhood speargun for my first professional underwater camera. Shortly after, I earned a master’s degree in marine biology. For the past 10 years I have lived on the small Caribbean island of Bonaire, where I have been working as a marine conservation photographer.

My overarching goal is to document the efforts of the local community – scientists, professional divers and volunteers – to preserve Bonaire reefs. And here, a significant part of the collective conservation effort is focused on one specific goal: the lionfish (Pteroismiles and Pterois volitans).

The lionfish is native to the Pacific and Indian oceans. But in the last few decades, the animal has settled in the Gulf of Mexico and the Caribbean Sea, where its invasive presence poses a serious threat to tropical Atlantic reefs and their associated habitats.

The effects are amazing. A study by scientists from Oregon State University found that in just five weeks, a single lionfish reduced juvenile fish in its feeding zone by 80 percent. And their reproductive output is quite high: Females can lay about 25,000 eggs every few days. Density of lionfish in some places, including the Bahamas, The most significant change in the biodiversity of reef habitats since the beginning of industrialized fisheries.

Caribbean communities have used a number of strategies to curb the growth of lionfish populations. Bonaire relies on volunteer lionfish hunters; on partnerships with Stichting Nationale Parken Bonaire or STINAPA, a non-profit foundation that manages Bonaire’s nature parks; and with help from local dive shops.

Because underwater fishing causes little collateral damage, divers offer a surefire form of population management. But divers are limited to the depth they can comfortably descend to – usually around 60 feet. Traps can also be used where lionfish are found at greater depths.

Since spear fishing is prohibited in Bonaire and to help prevent injuries, special tools were developed and distributed to assist divers in their hunt. ELF tools – “ELF” means “destroy the lionfish” – also help prevent damage to reefs by traditional harpoons and nets.

While catching a lionfish is relatively easy, it can be difficult and dangerous to pull the fish out of an ELF’s spearhead and pull the animal out without being injured by its venomous spines. Thus, lionfish hunters also began to use a device called the “animal guard” – essentially a piece of PVC pipe with a closed end at one end and a modified plastic funnel at the other. When the lionfish spear is thrown at the ELF, the fish (and the tip of the spear) are thrust into the zookeeper; When the spear is pulled, the fish is trapped inside the pipe by the funnel.

When I first came to Bonaire, I was introduced to the conservation project aimed at exterminating the lionfish. Due to my experience as a speargunner, I was promptly asked to join. I agreed to participate – though my main interest was in documenting the community’s efforts.

Since then, I’ve been fascinated by the transfixing creature’s destructive abilities.

Killing something so hypnotically beautiful feels cruel—although I logically understand that the act is ecologically beneficial. After all, the lionfish cannot be blamed; That’s where it likely ended when aquarium owners dumped unwanted specimens onto Florida shores, possibly because they ate other fish that shared their tanks, the scientists said.

Still, killing fish one by one is perhaps the best way to slow the damage they are wreaking on Caribbean reefs.