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Although it sounds like the "eat the oysters" solution here is a joke, the idea of using cuisine to tackle the problem of invasive species is not new. The Lion

Although it sounds like the "eat the oysters" solution here is a joke, the idea of using cuisine to tackle the problem of invasive species is not new. The Lionfish is native to Indo-Pacific waters but is now established as an invasive species in the Caribbean; the NOAA and partner agencies enlisted the help of chefs to publish recipes for cooking these fish, and even convinced the Catholic church to suggest that their Colombian parishioners eat lionfish on Fridays.

nebabyte 10y ago
I mean it absolutely sounds like a great trade opportunity, if the numbers pan out.
- yourapostasy 10y ago
  Unfortunately the numbers are difficult to work out, because hunting lionfish is still predominantly a very labor-intensive activity. Some folks are working on remotely operated unmanned submersibles to factor out the labor. Also missing is a grid of underwater cameras feeding a stream to a back-end object recognition cluster to map out real-time lionfish locations to maximize kill utilization ratios (too much time is spent looking for them instead of killing them). Bootstrap enough of the industry, then build enough of the submersibles to permanently station around the most sensitive coral reefs and eventually entire islands and coastlines to "fence them off" from future infestations, and push them further out into the ocean where large predators can feast upon them as they have less cover to hide within, if the native oceanic predators can even eat them. There is some suspicion that in the invasive areas lionfish have no natural predators other than humans; sharks, groupers and eels can be trained to expect dead lionfish handouts from divers, but no one has yet documented them start to hunt the lionfish on their own in significant numbers. I would settle for pushing them out into the relative desert of the benthic ocean, and hope they starve out there. Fortunately, someone has already worked out a filleting robot for haddock, and modifying its pattern recognition for lionfish requires enough a training corpus to make it sufficiently reliable, so once killed they can be quickly prepared and frozen. The most recent research indicates lionfish aren't susceptible to Ciguatera. Unfortunately, lionfish toxins can also sometimes be found in their flesh, so they must be cooked (heat breaks down the toxins), and they can't be introduced into the lucrative sushi and sashimi markets (though I'm sure enterprising sushi chefs will find delicious ways to prepare the cooked lionfish flesh). Accuracy rates on automated classification of lionfish in live streaming video is so far not revealed in any write ups I've read, and especially false positives (killing fish that the classifier thinks is lionfish but actually are not). That's a significant problem, and also the obstacle that I can't work out to gamifying the killing of lionfish. The threat of the more capital-intensive automation of industrial-scale lionfish hunting/eradication also presents a challenge to locals who want to break into the market. Not much incentive for the locals to invest into opening the market when they know they could be out of a job within just a few years of establishing a lucrative market to well-capitalized (and often foreign) competitors who can tap more credit than the locals. Currently, economically beneficial lionfish eradication for the locals is primarily focused upon leading hunts for diving tourists to favored dive spots, and not for systemic, industrial-scale, broad eradication across the entire coastline. Personally, I believe leaving it at this is a mistake, because lionfish represent a threat to our fisheries over the longer term.
deleted 10y ago
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jodrellblank 10y ago
Not new indeed; it's how we got rid of the Apicians from Gustible's Planet documented in 1962 http://www.vb-tech.co.za/ebooks/Smith%20Cordwainer%20-%20From%20Gustibles%20Planet%20-%20SF.html http://www.vb-tech.co.za/ebooks/Smith%20Cordwainer%20-%20Fro...
undersuit 10y ago
There was an artificial lake on the Clark Fork river near Missoula, MT until recently. The lake had lots of lake loving invasive pike; pike that would eat the native trout. So Missoula started delivering pike to the local homeless shelter. The lake has been removed but I still always like the idea.

nebabyte 10y ago

I mean it absolutely sounds like a great trade opportunity, if the numbers pan out.

yourapostasy 10y ago
Unfortunately the numbers are difficult to work out, because hunting lionfish is still predominantly a very labor-intensive activity. Some folks are working on remotely operated unmanned submersibles to factor out the labor. Also missing is a grid of underwater cameras feeding a stream to a back-end object recognition cluster to map out real-time lionfish locations to maximize kill utilization ratios (too much time is spent looking for them instead of killing them). Bootstrap enough of the industry, then build enough of the submersibles to permanently station around the most sensitive coral reefs and eventually entire islands and coastlines to "fence them off" from future infestations, and push them further out into the ocean where large predators can feast upon them as they have less cover to hide within, if the native oceanic predators can even eat them. There is some suspicion that in the invasive areas lionfish have no natural predators other than humans; sharks, groupers and eels can be trained to expect dead lionfish handouts from divers, but no one has yet documented them start to hunt the lionfish on their own in significant numbers. I would settle for pushing them out into the relative desert of the benthic ocean, and hope they starve out there. Fortunately, someone has already worked out a filleting robot for haddock, and modifying its pattern recognition for lionfish requires enough a training corpus to make it sufficiently reliable, so once killed they can be quickly prepared and frozen. The most recent research indicates lionfish aren't susceptible to Ciguatera. Unfortunately, lionfish toxins can also sometimes be found in their flesh, so they must be cooked (heat breaks down the toxins), and they can't be introduced into the lucrative sushi and sashimi markets (though I'm sure enterprising sushi chefs will find delicious ways to prepare the cooked lionfish flesh). Accuracy rates on automated classification of lionfish in live streaming video is so far not revealed in any write ups I've read, and especially false positives (killing fish that the classifier thinks is lionfish but actually are not). That's a significant problem, and also the obstacle that I can't work out to gamifying the killing of lionfish. The threat of the more capital-intensive automation of industrial-scale lionfish hunting/eradication also presents a challenge to locals who want to break into the market. Not much incentive for the locals to invest into opening the market when they know they could be out of a job within just a few years of establishing a lucrative market to well-capitalized (and often foreign) competitors who can tap more credit than the locals. Currently, economically beneficial lionfish eradication for the locals is primarily focused upon leading hunts for diving tourists to favored dive spots, and not for systemic, industrial-scale, broad eradication across the entire coastline. Personally, I believe leaving it at this is a mistake, because lionfish represent a threat to our fisheries over the longer term.

deleted 10y ago

[deleted]

jodrellblank 10y ago

Not new indeed; it's how we got rid of the Apicians from Gustible's Planet documented in 1962 http://www.vb-tech.co.za/ebooks/Smith%20Cordwainer%20-%20From%20Gustibles%20Planet%20-%20SF.html http://www.vb-tech.co.za/ebooks/Smith%20Cordwainer%20-%20Fro...

undersuit 10y ago

There was an artificial lake on the Clark Fork river near Missoula, MT until recently. The lake had lots of lake loving invasive pike; pike that would eat the native trout. So Missoula started delivering pike to the local homeless shelter. The lake has been removed but I still always like the idea.