Frank Schmidt (front right) and members of the Lighthouse Point Saltwater Sportsman Association with the lionfish they caught spearfishing on local coral reefs. Photo provided
By Steve Waters
April can be a tough month for divers who love to hunt fo
invasive species (3)
Brazilian pepper was the pervasive invasive in the 1980s when I moved to this area. Now there are iguanas. Fewer “square groupers” wash ashore on summer nights; instead more sea turtles make the annual trek up the beach. Then sometime during the past
A diver keeps a lionfish at arm’s length to avoid the sharp spines.
Geoff Pugh, a lifelong diver, developed a tube
for storing lionfish after they are speared. The invasive fish
have 18 venomous spines on their bodies. Pugh builds his lionfish tubes
