Control of Lionfish in the Mesoamerican Reef

After a few months that the Belize Fisheries Department jointly with Blue Ventures began their project "A practical approach to long-term lionfish control: developing Belize’s national lionfish exploitation strategy.", they have already accomplished significant results.  Some of these are:

• They have completed the trainig component with fishers regarding lionfish monitoring
• Gathered all baseline indicators for programme evaluation
• Designed the social marketing campaign
• Set up the survey design and schedule for monitoring in five marine reserves

This has not been without significant challenges, given the high variability in lionfish population density discovered from their pilot surveys, which has required them to modify their initial survey design.

Whilst they have been implementing these activities, they have of course also been planning the next steps - that is, implementing the strategy.

We really look forward to receive the progress report from the Fisheries Department, so we will learn more from their progress and be able to share them with you.

Thank you all for your support!