About three months ago, Agriculture Minister Christopher Tufton voiced his concerns about the lionfish in Jamaican waters. Many of us looked up the lionfish on the internet and some did so in printed material in libraries. We read that the fish were believed to have got into the Caribbean Sea when damage was done by a 1992 hurricane to a salt-water aquarium in Florida, USA, containing rare fish from all over the world.

Why wasn’t the movement of these lionfish monitored as they swam from the north and to the Caribbean in the south before they reached Jamaica after 18 years? Apart from eating smaller fish, the lionfish are said to use their many tentacles to give off a painful and even poisonous sting that affects human beings.

Lionfish live in both deep and shallow water, which is a potential problem on our beaches to Jamaicans and tourists. It is bad enough when advisories are issued to tourists from their home countries concerning violence in Jamaica. It would be most unfortunate if advisories were issued because of the lionfish. It would also be ironic if such advisories came from the USA where it is said the problem started.

It is not a matter of looking out for tourists before looking out for Jamaicans. Indeed, it is the other way around. I am looking out for Jamaicans first in terms of the jobs and the revenue that tourism brings through landing tax, room tax and departure tax. I am concerned because I hope that one day a cooperative will play a pivotal role in the hotel industry.

I am concerned because I run camps for youngsters every summer and we usually go to the beach while at camp. I have been running doctrine camps for Roman Catholics who do not go to Roman Catholic schools since 1992, the very year when it is reported that the lionfish got into the Caribbean Sea, although I heard about the lionfish only about three months ago. I run separate camps, one for boys in July and one for girls in August (more expensive and more tiring to organise and direct two camps but, trust me – far less headache).

This summer the boys’ camp was in Black River, St Elizabeth. We took a walk out on to the Black River Bridge. It was the third time in 18 years that we were camping in the Black River area. We were speaking generally about taking a safari up the Black River later in the camp – which we did just as we had done the other two times we camped there.

We spoke about the crocodiles that swim in Black River Bay. (Jamaica’s crocodiles swim in either fresh or salt water although their obvious preference is for fresh water.) One boy asked if there were any lionfish at the beach we planned to visit. I opined that they might not have reached as far as the south coast yet.

A passing fisherman overheard our discussion and said “Weh yuh a chat ’bout? Wi ketch lionfish an’ chrow dem back inna de sea”. That statement by the fisherman was a learning experience for all of us. We still went to the beach, but thank God, we did not encounter any lionfish.

The girls’ camp was held at Marymount High School, St Mary. Deacon Terry Gillette of the Highgate Missions invited us to join up with the church’s Sunday School picnic beach outing at Robin’s Bay on August 18. The invitation was welcome as we were transported and fed courtesy of the organisers of the summer school, which included Deacon Gillette and Mrs Mary Boswell, the sister of Monsignor Robert Haughton James.

I was talking to Deacon Gillette on the beach when a fisherman walked up. He had with him a lionfish and Deacon Gillette was the first to spot it. I called our campers and the Sunday School children to view the lionfish which most of them ran to see. Our camp deputy, Latoya Latibeaudiere, a former paginator at the Jamaica Observer and now a law student, took the photographs.

A lot of the discussion by the youngsters on the beach was about the lionfish that they saw. The fisherman told us that he had shot the lionfish with his speargun in the deep sea, and he has also seen lionfish in shallow waters. We could all eat lionfish until we weigh 500 pounds, but we will not stop the problem that way.The real solution is to cordon off the beach areas with sturdy mesh wire.

Our tourist trade is so vulnerable, especially if we rely only on sun and sea tourism. Earlier this year we had the oil spill in The Gulf of Mexico and many wondered if Jamaica’s beaches would be affected. While we hear that we have no need to worry, I prefer to wait until the winter months when the winds change direction before I know for sure.

We need to diversify the tourism product with great speed by introducing nature tourism, sports tourism and conference tourism. But we cannot fully abandon sun and sea tourism because this is where most of the money flows from. We need to cordon off our beaches with great speed.

ekrubm765@yahoo.com