{"id":1594,"date":"2016-07-13T15:30:59","date_gmt":"2016-07-13T19:30:59","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/new.greatflorida.com\/blog\/?p=1594"},"modified":"2026-04-16T21:04:03","modified_gmt":"2026-04-17T01:04:03","slug":"taking-bite-lionfish","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/www.greatflorida.com\/blog\/2016\/taking-bite-lionfish\/","title":{"rendered":"Taking a Bite Out of Lionfish"},"content":{"rendered":"

“It isn\u2019t often when Florida officials persuade fishermen and divers to get rid of fish,\u201d says Dustyn Shroff<\/a>, Vice President of GreatFlorida Insurance<\/a>, Florida\u2019s largest independent boat insurance<\/a> agency.<\/p>\n

Lionfish are having a detrimental impact on Florida\u2019s native species and habitats. The lionfish population is at a rapid increase and ruining Florida\u2019s underwater eco-system.<\/p>\n

As a result,\u00a0The Florida Fish and Wildlife Commission<\/a> (FWC) is encouraging divers, anglers and commercial harvesters to eliminate lionfish. There is no recreational or commercial bag limit as well as no size limit. They can be speared, caught with a hand- held net or hook and line.<\/p>\n

Native to the Indo-Pacific, lionfish began showing up along the U.S. Coastline and Gulf of Mexico in the 1980\u2019s. Experts believe they arrived by way of \u00a0domestic fish tank and aquarium dumps.<\/p>\n

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The National Oceanic Atmospheric Administration<\/a> ( NOAA) says they cause problems for many reasons. Lionfish\u00a0have no known predators, a voracious appetite, they reproduce quickly and grow rapidly.<\/p>\n

\u201cDue to their venomous spines, care must be taken when handling lionfish,\u201d reports Buck from GreatFlorida Insurance<\/a>, Florida\u2019s leading independent boat insurance<\/a> agency.<\/p>\n

They have up to 18 venomous spines and can sting after they are dead. NOAA reports the fish stings can cause extreme pain, swelling, respiratory distress and even paralysis.<\/p>\n

Some Florida grocery stores want to help eradicate the species and prove their dedication to sustainability. \u00a0They are selling the invasive species in their seafood departments. Whole Foods Market is\u00a0offering fresh lionfish in 26 of their Florida stores. At Publix Supermarkets, you can special order lionfish to be cleaned and filleted. While Wegmans<\/a>, a grocery store in the Northeast and Mid-Atlantic states, is\u00a0also offering Florida caught lionfish.<\/p>\n

Whole Foods explains, trained employees will remove\u00a0the poisonous spines from the fish. They describe the fish as,\u201c white, buttery meat [that] lends itself to any number of different recipes. From ceviche to a simple pan saut\u00e9.\u201d<\/p>\n

According to the Sun Sentinel<\/a>, \u201cAsking Floridians to eat their way out of a potential environmental disaster has drawn praise from scientist and conservationist.<\/p>\n

GreatFlorida Insurance<\/a> shops all the major carriers in Florida to find the best boat insurance<\/a> at the best rate. Contact us today.<\/p>\n

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“It isn\u2019t often when Florida officials persuade fishermen and divers to get rid of fish,\u201d says Dustyn Shroff, Vice President of GreatFlorida Insurance, Florida\u2019s largest independent boat insurance agency. Lionfish are having a detrimental impact on Florida\u2019s native species and habitats. The lionfish population is at a rapid increase and ruining Florida\u2019s underwater eco-system. As […]<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":1219,"featured_media":1602,"comment_status":"open","ping_status":"closed","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"tdm_status":"","tdm_grid_status":"","footnotes":""},"categories":[4],"tags":[],"class_list":{"0":"post-1594","1":"post","2":"type-post","3":"status-publish","4":"format-standard","5":"has-post-thumbnail","7":"category-boat-insurance"},"amp_enabled":true,"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.greatflorida.com\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/1594","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.greatflorida.com\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.greatflorida.com\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.greatflorida.com\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/1219"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.greatflorida.com\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=1594"}],"version-history":[{"count":1,"href":"https:\/\/www.greatflorida.com\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/1594\/revisions"}],"predecessor-version":[{"id":13894,"href":"https:\/\/www.greatflorida.com\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/1594\/revisions\/13894"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.greatflorida.com\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media\/1602"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.greatflorida.com\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=1594"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.greatflorida.com\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=1594"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.greatflorida.com\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=1594"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}