The Caribbean Lionfish Alliance dedicated to rescue Aruba’s beautiful reef of the invasive lionfish held their Volunteer appreciation party to honor their brave volunteers.
The Caribbean Lionfish Alliance was founded by a group of individual hunters that joined together their love for the ocean, love of scuba diving and the thrills that come from hunting the invasive lionfish in order to protect Aruba’s beautiful reefs. As the tides change, so to do ideas, circumstances and opportunities. As time would have it, the group of hunters became friends; hunting together for several years. Their shared experiences led to the idea of starting a foundation which soon turned into a wonderful reality. CLA was officially recognized by Aruba on September 25th, 2020, providing long-term opportunities for this group to grow and continue to bring people, businesses and other foundations together with the ultimate goal of protecting Aruba’s reefs for years to come.
Last weekend CLA held a ‘Volunteer appreciation’ party. Not only did this party show the appreciation of the foundation to all the people involved (hunters & allies), also it served as an ending party to their ‘Mini Derby’. The mini derby was held over a period of two weekends consisting of prizes for best weekend counts and hunting in buddy teams.
Prize winning categories were;
– Biggest amount of fish (48 fish Tom & Jean-Luc. 30 fish Michiel & Josh. 16 fish Leon & Wesley)
– Biggest fish (40,5cm Michiel)
– Smallest fish (9,5cm Warren & Wesley)
CLA would like to thank all their prize sponsors Chicken and Lobster, Pure Diving Aruba and LionFish Snack Aruba and also their allies Aqua Windie’s Aruba and Pure Diving Aruba for the ongoing support of their cause!
Unfortunately they also had to say goodbye to one of their top-hunters Michiel. He got a nice cup to remember them by. “it’s not a competition”
To all the hunters and allies, thank you for the great afternoon and see you soon in the water!
Last but not least, thank you to board member and master bbq chef Martin for the great food!
To all the winners, MASHA PABIEN / CONGRATS!!