Eat ‘Em To Beat ‘Em Helping cull invasive lionfish from Florida waters starts on your dinner plate. // B Y M E L I S S A P E T E R S O N
L
ionfish are an invasive fish species that has, over 30 or so years, spread from South Florida through the Caribbean and Gulf of Mexico and now has a range from North Carolina to South America, wreaking havoc on marine habitats and native species along its way, with Florida especially taking a serious hit. “Virtually all estuaries, coastal and offshore waters in Florida have been invaded by lionfish,” says Dr. Steve Gittings, chief 28
352PREVIEW.COM
scientist, NOAA Office of National Marine Sanctuaries. “They can be found in nearly every habitat type but are most abundant over hardbottoms and reefs and tend to be most crowded around artificial reefs. Florida is where the invasion started, but it’s also the place with the most intense response by the state government, non-profits and the public.” So how did lionfish—native to coral reefs in the tropical waters of the South Pacific
and Indian Oceans—get into Florida waters to begin with? Most scientists agree that the first few lionfish in Florida waters, which were seen north of Miami in the mid-1980s, were released from personal aquariums. “It’s common for people to dump their pets when they no longer want them, and few people want to kill them,” says Dr. Gittings. “It’s assumed that someone dumped lionfish into a canal in the area, but we don’t know exactly how many were in the population that eventually exploded around the year 2000. It was probably a fairly small number.” Unfortunately, a small number can quickly get out of hand, as females become reproductive in their first year of life and lay over 30,000 eggs every three to four days. In addition, they can tolerate a wide range of temperatures, depths and salinities, and because eggs and larvae drift in plankton for about a month, they can disperse very far on currents. Since the population explosion, the consequences to Florida’s marine environment have been dire. Lionfish have no natural predators in our waters and are equipped with insatiable appetites. “This voracious and prolific invader threatens to overeat or outcompete native marine life, including some commercially important species, like snapper and grouper,” says Dr. Gittings. “Lionfish are what we call ‘generalist’ feeders. They eat just about any type of fish they can catch. Studies in some locations have shown that native fish can be reduced by well over half very quickly. And there are ecosystem-wide implications. By gobbling up fish that eat algae, for example, lionfish remove grazers that keep algae from spreading wildly and smothering reefs— growth that, left unchecked, eliminates habitat for a host of other marine life. Large algae populations can also limit recreational opportunities and thus lead to loss of tourism revenue.” Fortunately, scientists from NOAA, the Florida Fish and Wildlife Conservation Commission (FWC) and the U.S. Geological Survey are leading the way in the fight against lionfish. As Dr. Gittings explains, NOAA scientists were some of the first to do studies on the biology and ecology of lionfish, as well as discovering the high nutritional quality of lionfish, raising the hopes for its prominence in the seafood market. “Staff in NOAA’s national marine sanctuaries have been actively monitoring lionfish populations and effects, removing them from areas they can, conducting
Sources: Amanda Nalley with the Florida Fish and Wildlife Conservation Commission, Pam Schofield with the U.S. Geological Survey, Dr. Steve Gittings of the NOAA Office of National Marine Sanctuaries
WATCH // EXPLORE // CRAVE
