At first glance it looks unfair, a scuba-clad assassin fixing the barrel of a Glock 17 9mm equipped for underwater use on a peacefully swimming lionfish. But lionfish are an invasive species, and they’ve become a real problem in parts of the Gulf of Mexico.
As the video above states, these things multiply like crazy, laying 2 million eggs every year. It’s up to spearfishers—and now, Glock enthusiasts who know what they’re doing—to handle the problem.
Outdoors360 interviewed Courtland Hunt, the man who decided to take his Glock 100 feet under the Gulf Waters to become the lionfish terminator, and he made the reasons for his approach very clear; it wasn’t just about making a video. “…Lionfish are an invasive species and currently the only way to slow the spreading devastation is spearfishing,” Hunt said, “and people demanding them at seafood restaurants, they’re honestly one of the tastiest, firmest fish that there is in the ocean and not poisonous when eaten.”
Regarding his unique decision to use a handgun, Hunt told O360 that he and his crew “set out to test whether we could shoot a handgun 100ft underwater and it turned into a project to prove almost every expert we talked to that there’s many mis-conceptions about what’s possible underwater.”
They discovered there’s very little information out there on what happens when you handle a firearm under water in such a manner, and Hunt said he’s also admittedly “fascinated by guns, but tired of seeing videos on ‘how many watermelons, CD’s, or marshmallows can a bullet travel through.’ Those things have no applications for me, however I can now tell you that if a shark (or watermelon) were to attack me at almost any depth that a Glock 9mm would surely protect me.”
The alterations necessary to effectively use a Glock as Hunt did in his video were done in consultation with firearms specialists. It’s worth emphasizing that you can’t just pack your regular old piece the next time you’re worried there may be sharks nearby—it may end as badly for you as it did for the lionfish.
h/t Outdoors360