About 20 years ago, one of the world's most beautiful and otherworldly fish, the red lionfish, started showing up in south Florida and the Caribbean. Now, they're a plague. Millions of them live from northeastern South America to New York, from water you can stand in down to depths of a thousand feet.

In a world where the main concern about fish is overfishing, and the main demand on fish is to feed an increasingly hungry human-dominated world, it may see odd to complain about abundance. But theirs is an abundance that produces widespread scarcity. That's because invaders from afar often crowd out or gobble a wide array of desirable natives. And as an invading saltwater fish - the lion is king.

Lionfish are native to the west Pacific, Indian Ocean, and Red Sea; they're quilled with venomous spines. The sting is not fatal, but from the descriptions I've heard of the pain, victims might wish it were. (Yesterday while working underwater with a scientist I got barely nicked through a glove; it produced an immediate sensation and a bump).

Lionfish are here in the Atlantic, it seems, because of owners of living room aquariums who tired of the upkeep but didn't want to kill their fish. With compassion in their breasts, they released them, in numbers sufficient to get them established. Then-remember the phrase, "balance of nature?" Well�

No native fish in the Atlantic looks like the lionfish, hunts like it, or stings like it. Result: No native fish in the Atlantic recognizes it as a predator. No native fish in the Atlantic gets alarmed when lionfish are on the "hunt," because a hunting lionfish looks like a drifting piece of seaweed. And no native predator - sharks, say, or barracuda - wants anything to do with those venomous spines.

And so, as I said, there are millions of them. The problem: they'll eat anything in sight. Forty-plus kinds of native fishes have been found in their bellies, including young snappers and groupers and others of commercial, ecological and culinary value. They eat juvenile surgeonfishes and parrotfishes that, crucially, graze algae off of reefs and make it possible for baby corals to get established and grow.

Atlantic coral reefs are in a world of hurt as is. The most formerly abundant corals have collapsed throughout the Caribbean, thanks to new diseases, pollution, silt, overfishing, over-warming, and acidifying seawater. (The same combustion-produced carbon dioxide that causes climate warming dissolves in seawater to form carbonic acid, hampering growth of corals and edible shellfish.)

As corals die, seaweed takes over. Where seaweed takes over, baby corals can't grow. One of the only hopes for the reefs is the recovery of fishes - especially parrotfishes - that graze-off the seaweed that is smothering many reefs. Reefs can't afford a new predator that has no predators and that eats all the babies of the fish that graze. They can't afford lionfish.

We've come to the Cape Eleuthera Institute in the Bahamas, where Professor Mark Hixon of Oregon State University is studying the effects that lionfish have on native reef fishes. On our first dive, on a patch of reef a mere 50-feet across, we counted 21 lionfish - and very few of the fish that lionfish eat.

On reefs where Hixon's students are removing lionfish - more fish of various kinds seem to be surviving.

Hixon is finding that if you want to get rid of lionfish, you basically have to remove them one-by one. People who like their reefs are, in fact, organizing groups of spear-fishing divers to do just that. Other people are trying to commercialize lionfish, hoping to make them the next big flash in the pan. Over the next few days, in the course of filming an episode for an upcoming PBS television series called "Saving the Ocean," we'll be seeing the lionfish's human adversaries in action.

Will they send lionfish the way of cod, tuna, groupers, snappers and other overfished ocean wildlife? For now, after 20 years of working against overfishing, I'm betting on the power of fishing people to deplete their targeted prey.

If you can't beat 'em - join me in a couple of days for my next post from a lionfish spearfishing derby in Florida.

by Carl Safina

Carl Safina is founder of Blue Ocean Institute at Stony Brook University and a MacArthur Fellow. His books include "A Sea in Flames: The Deepwater Horizon Oil Blowout," and "The View From Lazy Point; A Natural Year in an Unnatural World," which won the 2012 Orion Award. His series "Saving the Ocean" will be premiering this fall on PBS television.

Mr. Safina also has a reputation as a super fisherman. Here's a guest post by him about an invasive species that threatens the Atlantic.

NYTimes

About Lionfish

The Lionfish is an Invasive Alien Species (IAS) from the Indo-Pacific region that has the potential to negatively impact Trinidad and Tobago's marine fisheries, dive tourism industry and reef ecosystem. Eating the Lionfish is one way to protect our marine ecosystems.

Its white, flaky meat has a mild taste similar to Snapper, and can be prepared in a variety of ways.

Request it at your next dining experience to encourage chefs to put Lionfish dishes on the menu!

Lionfish hunting in Belize

Sinking slowly through Belize's turquoise sea, Giovanni Gonzalez has murder on his mind. The dive guide scans the reef, his dreadlocks moving like a sea creature. I see only the usual confetti of tropical fish, but I can tell that Gio has spotted a lionfish tucked into the coral.

He readies his spear, takes aim and fires. The impaled fish materializes in a cloud of silt, thrashing to free itself - or at least sink a poison-barbed fin into someone's skin. No fool, Gio pulls out a pair of scissors and disarms the fish by snipping off its spiky fins. A squeamish vegetarian, I turn away and watch the fins drift like feathers toward the ocean floor.

Gio is clearly having a lot of fun, but he's also ridding the reef of a dangerous invader. Native to the Indian and Pacific oceans, lionfish were released into the Atlantic in the 1980s - most likely by Florida aquarium owners who tired of feeding the voracious creatures. Since then, these orange-and red-striped devils have colonized coastal waters from Rhode Island to South America, devastating local fish populations wherever they go.

In Belize, they're making a meal of the tropical fish that tourists like me fly hundreds of miles to see. So, to protect the marine ecosystem and their own livelihoods, fishermen and dive professionals began hunting lionfish in 2002, Gio tells me once we're back on the boat. "There was a bounty then," he says. "Fifty dollars a fish." Even with a price on their heads, the lionfish continued their invasion. "We need tourists to spear lionfish, and we really need people to start eating them," Gio says.

When I'd booked my ticket to Belize, hunting and eating poisonous fish hadn't been on the top of my to-do list. My plan was to laze around on a quiet beach with a frozen drink and take a leisurely look at the undersea scenery. Topside in Belize, I found plenty of laid-back charm. But beneath the ocean's surface, I discovered a world of fearsome creatures engaged in a fierce battle for survival - and I got pulled into the melee myself.

Swimming with sharks

My home base for the week, Placencia, is a charming fishing village three hours from the capital, Belize City. Soon after arriving, my travel companion and I discover that the town's real main street isn't the recently paved road, but a narrow sidewalk that sets off near the public beach, wanders past sparsely populated cafes, and barges right through people's back yards. In the afternoon heat, we see only a smattering of sunburned tourists on the sidewalk, but as the sun sets, the town's melange of residents gathers to loiter and gossip.

After failed attempts at eavesdropping - most Placencians speak Kriol, a musical mix of English, West African and Native American languages - we gravitate to the friendly buzz at the Barefoot Bar, a brightly painted pavilion where several patrons are, in fact, barefoot, and at least one appears to be sharing a drink with his pet iguana.

After a long day of traveling, I want to spend the next day exploring no farther than the 10 feet between my beach bungalow and the sea. Fate, however, has other plans. Whale sharks are migrating down the coast, and we can't miss the opportunity to see the biggest fish in the sea.

Though these behemoths can grow to 40 feet long, they strike terror only in the hearts of the krill and the other tiny ocean creatures they capture in their gaping maws. So tourists flock to Placencia every spring to swim with them, and we just happen to be in the right place at the right time.

Or so I'm told. After an early wake-up call followed by a half-hour of diving in open ocean, our only company is a sortie of snorkelers getting knocked around by waves at the surface.

I climb back on the boat, disappointed. But just as I peel off my wetsuit, someone starts shouting. "Get in the water! Get in the water now!"

I grab my fins and someone else's mask, jump off the side of the boat and almost land on a whale shark the size of a school bus. His dappled gray back is just inches from my nose, and I can see that the spots, which I expected to be white, are actually a delicate pale yellow. Definitely worth the sleep deprivation, I think, as the shark returns to the inky depths.

The opportunity to swim with whale sharks may become increasingly rare, as overfishing in Asia landed them on the World Conservation Union's "vulnerable" to extinction list in 2000. Human competition for snapper and other game fish, which the whale sharks eat as spawn, may further deplete the sharks' numbers, scientists say.

If humans can start using our appetite for seafood for good, by avoiding overfished species and eating invasive ones, we can help whale sharks and the other colorful reef fish that make Belize diving such a spectacular experience. So when Gio invites me to join him on a lionfish hunt, I say yes.

'The lion slayer'

It's my third day in Belize, and I'm speeding toward a lionfish stronghold called South Water Caye. I woke up early, set on spearing a lionfish and saving thousands of juvenile reef fish from untimely deaths, but my lionfish-hunting resolve wanes as Gio shows me his scars.

"Here's where the spine went all the way through my hand," Gio says, pointing to the slack skin between his thumb and forefinger. "I got stung twice here," he adds, as he shows me a white mark on his knuckle.

While rarely fatal, lionfish stings are intensely painful. "It's two hours of the worst pain I've ever felt," Gio says.

I turn over the stumpy, blunt spear in my hands as Gio gives me further instruction. If you skewer a lionfish through the side, he might swim up the spear and stab your hand. "Try to hit them right between the eyes," he says.

As I step off the dive boat, I consider my list of reasons for backing out of the lionfish hunt: poor vision, bad hand-eye coordination, a dislike of intense pain, an overdeveloped sense of empathy that keeps me from squishing even roaches. However, as a member of the most invasive species of all, I decide that it's my duty to at least try to spear a lion.

The reef comes into view, and it's not long before I spot my prey, his hiding place given away by a single feathery fin. Ready, aim, fire! The fish and I are equally surprised when I sink a spear right in the center of his zebra-striped head.

My courage tapped, I hand my spear to Gio, who removes the fish and adds it to a string. The day's kills, about a half-dozen fish, trail behind us like a balloon as we swim toward the boat. We pass a pair of fairy basslets, one of the lionfish's favorite snacks. "You're welcome," I tell them, telepathically.

Back at the dock, Gio cleans my fish, and I take it to the chef at my hotel. "Can you cook this?" I ask. It's not uncommon for guests to bring their own fish to dinner, the cook says, but my lionfish is a first.

That night, other diners are intrigued by my special order. "What does it taste like?" asks a fellow diver. I take a nibble of the flaky, pale flesh and admit that I've been a vegetarian since age 6.

Since I have no idea what fish is supposed to taste like, I divvy up the fillet and share it with anyone who wants to try. "It's good," says a dark-haired woman at the bar. "It's light, but it has some toothiness to it, like swordfish."

For the remainder of my vacation, I do nothing braver than rescue a drowning drink-umbrella from the swimming pool. Still, whenever I venture into the hotel restaurant, diners and waiters hail me as "the lion slayer."

If the critters ever show up in the Potomac, they'd better watch out. Forget about the fillets; I'm in it for the glory.

Washington Post

RELUCTANT HUNTER STALKS THE LIONFISH IN BELIZE

Tourists are encouraged to spear the invasive species that has devastated local fish populations. Sinking slowly through Belize's turquoise sea, Giovanni Gonzalez has murder on his mind. The dive guide scans the reef, his dreadlocks moving like a sea creature. I see only the usual confetti of tropical fish, but I can tell that Gio has spotted a lionfish tucked into the coral.

He readies his spear, takes aim and fires. The impaled fish materializes in a cloud of silt, thrashing to free itself - or at least sink a poison-barbed fin into someone's skin. No fool, Gio pulls out a pair of scissors and disarms the fish by snipping off its spiky fins.

Gio is clearly having a lot of fun, but he's also ridding the reef of a dangerous invader. Native to the Indian and Pacific oceans, lionfish were released into the Atlantic in the 1980s - most likely by Florida aquarium owners who tired of feeding the voracious creatures. Since then, these orange-and red-striped devils have colonized coastal waters, devastating local fish populations wherever they go.

In Belize, they're making a meal of the tropical fish that tourists like me fly hundreds of miles to see. So, to protect the marine ecosystem and their own livelihoods, fishermen and dive professionals began hunting lionfish in 2002, Gio tells me once we're back on the boat. "There was a bounty then," he says. "Fifty dollars a fish."

"We need tourists to spear lionfish, and we really need people to start eating them," Gio says.

When I'd booked my ticket to Belize, hunting and eating poisonous fish hadn't been on the top of my to-do list. But beneath the ocean's surface, I discovered a world of fearsome creatures engaged in a fierce battle for survival - and I got pulled into the melee myself.

My home base for the week, Placencia, is a charming fishing village three hours from the capital, Belize City. Soon after arriving, my travel companion and I discover that the town's real main street isn't the recently paved road, but a narrow sidewalk that sets off near the public beach, wanders past sparsely populated cafes, and barges right through people's backyards. In the afternoon heat, we see only a smattering of sunburned tourists on the sidewalk, but as the sun sets, the town's residents gather to loiter and gossip.

After a long day of traveling, I want to spend the next day exploring no farther than the 10 feet between my beach bungalow and the sea. Fate, however, has other plans. Whale sharks are migrating down the coast, and we can't miss the opportunity to see the biggest fish in the sea.

Though these behemoths can grow to 40 feet long, they strike terror only in the hearts of the krill and the other tiny ocean creatures they capture in their gaping maws. So tourists flock to Placencia every spring to swim with them, and we just happen to be in the right place at the right time.

I grab my fins and mask, jump off the side of the boat and almost land on a whale shark the size of a school bus. His dappled gray back is just inches from my nose, and I can see that the spots, which I expected to be white, are actually a delicate pale yellow. Definitely worth the sleep deprivation, I think, as the shark returns to the inky depths.

Gio invites me to join him on a lionfish hunt, and I say yes. It's my third day in Belize, and I'm speeding toward a lionfish stronghold called South Water Caye. As I step off the dive boat, I consider my list of reasons for backing out of the lionfish hunt: poor vision, bad hand-eye coordination, a dislike of intense pain, an overdeveloped sense of empathy that keeps me from squishing even roaches. However, as a member of the most invasive species of all, I decide that it's my duty to at least try to spear a lion.

The reef comes into view, and it's not long before I spot my prey, his hiding place given away by a single feathery fin. Ready, aim, fire! The fish and I are equally surprised when I sink a spear right in the center of his zebra-striped head.

Dingfelder is a travel, humor and science writer. Follow her on Twitter at @SadieDing.

LIONFISH SUNDAY BELIZE

Regarding the Lionfish Invasion

I wanted to share some of the recent information we have been finding regarding the lionfish invasion that is threatening to severely damage to our eco-system and sequentially our tourism and livelihood.

We are hosting another lionfish tournament in May and are hoping this information will inspire the people of San Pedro and the fishing and diving community of Belize to get on board with the efforts to help eradicate this escalating crisis.
Here are a list of facts that were pulled from THE REEF website. The Reef.Org is an organization of divers and marine enthusiasts committed to ocean conservation.

As you can surmise by the information presented below, we need to act and act now. We are asking the community to help us continue the fight with any donations for fuel for the fisherman and divers, for prizes to motivate people to participate in the tournament, and to begin to request restaurants add lionfish to their menu, creating a regular demand for the product.

Invasion history

� Two visually identical species of lionfish were introduced into the Atlantic via the US aquarium trade beginning in 1980's

� Lionfish invaded range is North Carolina, USA to South America including the Gulf of Mexico

� Lionfish have established throughout most of the Caribbean in less than 3 years (first reports outside of the Bahamas in 2007)

Biology

� Lionfish may live longer than 15 years reaching sizes exceeding 47cm (~20 in.)

� Lionfish inhabit all marine habitat types and depths (shoreline to over 600')

� Lionfish possess venomous spines capable of deterring predators and inflicting serious stings and reactions in humans

� Lionfish become sexually mature in less than 1-year and spawn in pairs

� In the Caribbean a single female lionfish can spawn over ~2 million eggs/year

� Reproduction occurs throughout the year about every 4 days

� Lionfish eggs are held together in a gelatinous mass and are dispersed at the ocean's surface by currents, where their larval duration is ~26 days

Ecology

� Lionfish can reach densities over 200 adults per acre

� Lionfish are generalist carnivores that consume >56 species of fish and many invertebrate species, with prey up to half the lionfish's body size

� Many lionfish prey are commercially, recreationally, or ecologically important fish

� Dense lionfish populations can consume more than 460,000 prey fish/acre/year

� On heavily invaded sites, lionfish have reduced their fish prey by up to 90% and continue to consume native fishes at unsustainable rates

� Native predators exhibit avoidance for lionfish

� Lionfish have very few parasites compared to native species

� Lionfish exhibit site fidelity

Control

� Lionfish are edible and considered a delicacy

� Local removal efforts can significantly reduce lionfish densities

Please help spread this information and join us in May to cheer on the contestants, learn how to fillet a lionfish and maybe even have a taste of the fish.

/s/ Noele McLain and the team at Wahoo's Lounge

Resource: http://www.reef.org/reef_files/Lionfish%20quickfacts.pdf

The Good and Bad of Feeding Lionfish to Other Marine Life

The invasion of lionfish into areas of the world where they are not natively found has become a huge problem in the marine world. Lionfish were typically only found in warm regions of the Pacific and Indian Oceans, and thirty years ago, there were no sightings of lionfish in Atlantic waters off of the coast of the USA.

However, over the last ten years or so, they have become more and more common in areas like North Carolina, Georgia, Florida, Bermuda and Belize, and have even been identified as far north as New York.

Why Is The Lionfish Invasion A Bad Thing?

The lionfish invasion is problematic for several reasons. For example:

• Lionfish are voracious eaters. They herd�juvenile�reef fish and feast on them, their stomachs able to stretch to three times their original size as they gorge, and the stomach contents of dead lionfish have shown that not only do they eat lots of juvenile fish, but they also favour a lot of different species. Reef fish are key factors in keeping a reef clean. If there are no more fish to eat the�algae�on the reefs the reefs will die and this will have�catastrophic consequences.
• Lionfish�have no natural predators in these areas.
• They breed prolifically all year round.

Should we feed lionfish to other marine life?

Photo Credit: MyFWCmedia

Is Encouraging Other Marine Life To Eat Them The Answer?

Some people believe that feeding lionfish to other marine life will train them to see these unwanted invaders as food. However it is never a good idea to feed marine life and there are several reasons why encouraging other marine life to eat lion fish is not a good solution:

• Changing the diet of other species in a marine environment artificially can upset the balance of these species and their usual prey, potentially causing just as much damage to the delicate ecosystem as introducing the lionfish.
• In lab studies, it has been shown that most creatures would literally rather starve to death than attack a lionfish. Lionfish look fearsome, and so feeding dead ones to other marine creatures may still not encourage them to attack live ones.
• It is hard for another creature to attack a lionfish without getting stung by its spines. The venom can be fatal to a lot of creatures.

Lionfish is tasty!

Photo Credit: Vagabond Shutterbug

While feeding the lionfish to other marine life is a potential solution that creates as many problems as it solves, some people believe that feeding them to humans may be the answer! The flesh of the lionfish is not poisonous, and the spines can be easily and safely removed in food preparation with some minimal training.

It is described as a delicate and delicious fish, well suited to food. If humans begin hunting the lionfish in these areas actively to eat them, this could help eradicate them.

Source

Lionfish: The Predator Becomes The Prey

To launch this initiative, these organizations held a lionfish competition on Friday and Saturday, and with the help of freelance Journalist Aaron Humes, we provide you with a look into the competition.

Jennifer Chapman - Representative Blue Ventures
"One of Blue Ventures primary objectives is to develop a market for Lion Fish both for local and export. Lion Fish have such a negative effect on our reef and they also provide us with an alternative sustainable environmentally safe with fishery. Lion Fish have extremely high prices in American restaurant and there are natives that are willing to pay for Lion Fish and throughout Belize it's really quite high. So we believe that fishermen are going to be able to receive more for what they work for than the average snapper or grouper fillet and furthermore it doesn't have a seasonal closure and it doesn't have a size limit. They can bring it in throughout the year and they don't have to worry about the restrictions because it doesn't have the restrictions in place with other fisheries because this is one that we want to over fish so you know it has a different perspective on it. Yes I believe that it can be extremely profitable and it's an industry that is just going to grow in Belize and is just going to get bigger."

Diver
"It feels pretty good - actually we're at 50-60ft getting the Lion Fish so that our reef can be safe for the future."

Reporter
"What advice would you give to other fishermen in terms of participating in this type of initiative to sort of rid the coastline of this veracious specie?"

Diver
"I would say that they should try their best to rid them - they are very nice and good to eat and delicious and they are not hard to catch as long as you know what you're doing, just be careful because they are easy to catch and they are affecting our reef so we need eradicate them to protect our local species."

OCEANA reports that the First prize of $1,500 for the most lionfish went to Turtle Inn. Splash Dive Shop landed the biggest lionfish weighing 1.64 pounds to win the $800 dollars, and the third prize for the smallest fish. There is no issue with over fishing or underweight fishing because this is a preventative measure to intervene on the issues cause by the Lionfish's dominance.

Channel 7

ReefCI catch the largest Lionfish in Belize!!!

Wow!!! How exciting!! ReefCI are delighted to report that Polly Alford, ReefCI Founder, speared the BIGGEST Lionfish EVER recorded in Belize! This photo shows the beast being measured!! It was a whopping 44cm long and weighed 2.75lbs!!!!!

"I looked down the wall and saw a huge Lionfish staring at me at around 100 feet! I thought to myself, I have to spear that giant! I speared it just behind its head and it shrugged itself off the spear!!! I speared it again and this time held it down so it couldn't jump off! When I tried to put it into the bag, it wouldn't fit!!! It was so big, the only way to get it in the bag, was to put the bag next to its head on the seafloor and maneuver it in. It was like playing twister with a speared Lionfish and bag underwater!!!! I knew that I had landed a very big Lionfish and that it was my personal record, however I had no idea until I checked with The World Lionfish Hunters Association and other organizations that I had speared the biggest recorded Lionfish in Belize." Polly, ReefCI Founder

Source

What is all this fuss about Lionfish? Most people know by now that Lionfish (Pterois Volitans) are an invasive species in the Caribbean! They are a beautiful fish and do not cause a problem in their native environment where they have natural predators. They are native to the Indo-pacific oceans and the Red sea.

Introducing the Lionfish to the Atlantic and Caribbean has turned out to be one of the cruelest and potentially catastrophic tricks ever played on an ecosystem!

Invasive lionfish are out-breeding, out-competing and out-living native fish stocks and other marine species. The consequences impact the food security and economies affecting over a hundred million people.

Experts speculate that the Lionfish got into the SE coast of the USA, Gulf of Mexico and Caribbean from people dumping their unwanted Lionfish from home aquariums into the Atlantic Ocean for up to 25 years.

Their average lifespan is 15 years. Female Lionfish reach sexual maturity and will release eggs when they reach 7 to 8 inches in length, or approximately one year old.

A female Lionfish can release between 10,000 and 30,000 unfertilized eggs every 4 days year around, approximately 2 million eggs per year! The egg sac contains a chemical deterrent that discourages other fish from eating the eggs.

A single Lionfish may reduce the number of juvenile native fish by approximately 79% in just 5 weeks!

Data collected is showing that Lionfish will eat anything that they can fit into their mouths. Their stomach can expand up to 30 times the normal volume and a Lionfish will fill it up to capacity as soon as it is able!Scientists have catalogued over 70 different species that lionfish will eat through stomach content analysis. In addition to the fish they eat, they also eat invertebrates and molluscs - shrimp, crabs, juvenile octopus, squid, juvenile lobster, etc.

Coral and algae fight for photosynthesis to survive. The grazer fish, such as Parrotfish, will feed on the algae. This helps keep coral reefs alive. Now we have Lionfish feeding on juvenile Parrotfish, fish stocks are reduced AND the health of the coral reefs are in jeopardy!

Studies have shown that a Lionfish can go without food for 3 months or longer and only lose 10% of their body mass.

Lionfish have 18 venomous spines that can easily penetrate human skin and give a very painful sting. Tough Fishermen have been seen crying from the pain! Recommended first aid for a Lionfish sting is to remove any broken spines, disinfect the wound and apply non-scalding hot water for 30-90 minutes. Monitor for signs of allergic reaction. Give the patient anti-histamine and a strong painkiller! There are no known cases of human fatality from a Lionfish sting.

Lionfish is venomous not poisonous! The meat is extremely tasty and restaurants are now featuring delicious Lionfish recipes on their menus.

Here in Southern Belize, Reef Conservation International Ltd (ReefCI) found the first Lionfish in November 2009.

Fast-forward to 2014, ReefCI are removing Lionfish using a spear and a Safespear© bag. This method is extremely effective. One diver, one bag, one spear and as many as 50-100 Lionfish are now being removed in the Sapodilla cayes!

Look out for Lionfish earrings. In Southern Belize, ReefCI staff are carefully removing the fins and spines and drying them out in the sun. Local woman are empowered and employed to make beautiful earrings out of them.

Are we making a difference? There are some dive sites where it seems that it is working and the numbers are down. However, in general, because we are located on a barrier reef, it seems like a losing battle! It's a bit like picking up garbage from the shore, one can pick it up everyday and it is always the same amount! But, it has to be done.

Here is the bottom line!

If left unchecked lionfish will ultimately cause the destruction of the reefs, native fish stocks and the livelihoods of everyone that depend upon them. How can you help?

Order Lionfish from restaurants buy Lionfish products such as the earrings and if you are a Scuba diver, make your next trip a Lionfish culling trip.

Polly Alford
Founder & Director and Lionfish Hunter!
ReefCI

There's a lion on the loose, and it's hunting endangered prey. I'm on my way to Belize to see what I can do about it.

The location of the Smithsonian's Carrie Bow Key field station, which will be the author's base of operations.

Belize is home to a portion of the largest barrier reef in the Caribbean, the Mesoamerican Barrier Reef System. Hundreds of species of fish inhabit this diverse coral reef system, many of them unique to the region. This week I will conduct field work there, joining forces with a team from the Smithsonian Institution led by fish curator Carole Baldwin.

Our team will look specifically at the population status and habitat conditions of the social wrasse, Halichoeres socialis.

But why pick this one species from the hundreds to be found there? The social wrasse is currently listed as "critically endangered" (the highest threat category) in the International Union for Conservation of Nature Red List of Threatened Species. There are two reasons the social wrasse is listed as critically endangered: it has a very small geographical range, and the quality of its habitat has continued to decline in the face of accelerated coastal development.

The critically endangered social wrasse (Halichoeres socialis).

Now a new threat looms, the invasive lionfish. This voracious predator is native to the Indo-Pacific, but during the mid to late 1990s the first lionfish were spotted in Florida.

There is no way to know with certainty how the invasion started, but it seems that some individuals were released by humans, either on purpose or by accident. (The lionfish is very common in home aquariums.) They have been spreading through the Caribbean since then. Recent reports indicate that the lionfish is now very common in Belizean reefs, and the social wrasse's small size makes it part of the lionfish's menu - a single lonfish can consume dozens of juvenile social wrasses every day.

The invasive Lionfish (Pterois volitans) in its native habitat in the Philippines.

While the immediate consequences of the extinction of the social wrasse might not seem important for many, such consequences may start a chain of events that would negatively influence its entire habitat. Most reef inhabitants feed on animals and plants found on the reef itself. But the social wrasse feeds on plankton that comes from the open ocean, and thus serves as a nutrient source for the reef itself, transferring resources from the open ocean to the reef. Removing the social wrasse can have severe impacts on the local ecosystem's health. And what is happening now on a small scale in Belize might be a predictor of what could happen in other areas of the Caribbean in the future.

Our mission is simple in scope: evaluate the status of both the habitat and the population health of the social wrasse. This means conducting underwater surveys and checking the surrounding islands for deforestation to establish the state of habitat degradation in the area. We will also collect lionfish to determine if the social wrasse is already part of their diets. We plan to share all of our findings with local environmental organizations (both governmental and not) and hopefully gather support to better protect what might be the world's most threatened marine fish.

NY Times

Belize Needs You To Speargun Poisonous Lionfish In The Face

The good people at Hatchet Caye Resort in Belize are fed up with the Lionfish -- the population is exploding, it's not even indigenous to their waters, they're eating up all the much prettier fish, and they're basically ruining EVERYTHING. So they're asking for your help to keep the species under control. Your mission: Jump on a plane down, grab a speargun and guide, scuba over to where those aquatic assholes are lurking, and pump a blade into their faces.

This is Hatchet Caye, the tropical, Richard Branson-esque private island where you'll greet your fellow hunters and sleep BEFORE you're with the fishes.

One more island shot, just so you realize how ridiculously gorgeous this joint is.

Oceanfront cabanas will be your vacation dormitory, even though this will be thousands of miles from anything like Spring Break.

The mighty whale shark: just one of the many native species NOT DOING ITS JOB.

You also don't want to spear this local loggerhead turtle, partly because it's adorable but mostly because it's illegal.

Here he is. Indigenous to the Pacific, this species has overrun the Atlantic due to voracious eating and rabbit-like mating habits. More than likely, it made its way over due to some irresponsible Floridian aquarium owner, which is speculation, but is also probably true because Florida is the worst.

Zapped. Now that you've hooked that poisonous peacock, keep him as far from your body as possible, considering their venomous spines have been known to cause paralysis of the limbs, heart failure, and even death.

Wait, and now you're eating him? Yes, you'll take that carpetbagger back to the aptly-named Lionfish Bar & Grill, where they will clean and prepare him before, once again, you take a blade to his face.

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7 Interesting Facts About Invasive Lionfish You Might Not Know

1. Where do the names "Pterios volitans" and "Pterois miles" come from? Are lionfish known by other names?

Pterois volitans, which makes up approximately 93% of the invasive lionfish population, is also commonly called "red lionfish" and Pterois miles is often called the "common lionfish" or "devil firefish." However, their common names do not match the origins of their scientific names.

The genus name, Pterois, pronounced (tare-oh-eese) is defined in modern dictionaries as simply "lionfish," however the word Pterois comes from the Greek word "pteroeis" meaning “feathered” or “winged” and the Ancient Greek word, "πτερόν" (pteron), meaning "feather" or "wing."

The species name, volitans, pronounced (vole-ee-tahnz), is Latin for “flying” or “hovering” and the present participle of the Latin word "volitō," which means “to fly” or “to hover.”

The species name, miles, pronounced (mee-layz), is Latin for “soldiering” and the present participle of the Latin word "mīlitō," which means “to soldier.”

No one is quite sure where the name "lionfish" really came from but it would be a logical guess that when both pectoral fins are completely extended and fanned out a head-on view of the lionfish might resemble a male lion’s mane. Others have also suggested that it might be a tip of the hat to the lionfish as a ferocious predator.

In areas where lionfish are not native, they may also be known by other names such as butterfly cod, firefish, turkeyfish, dragon fish, zebrafish, pez diablo (Spanish for devil fish), pez león (Spanish for "lion fish"), korall duivel (Dutch for "coral devil"), peixe-le�o (Portuguese for “lion fish”)�and poisson lion (French for "lion fish").

2. What are the fleshy tentacles above the eyes and below the mouths on young lionfish? What happens to them as they grow older?

Lionfish have "wigglers" and fleshy nobs over its eyes and under its mouth when they are young. Smaller prey fish are lured to these tassels. When the fish attempt to take the bait, the lionfish is able to swallow them in a lightning fast strike; the hunter becomes the prey! As the lionfish grows older they no longer need these lures as they gain hunting experience. The nobs may eventually�be nibbled down to nothing or they can get knocked off as the lionfish moves around its habitat.

3. How deep have invasive lionfish been found?

Lionfish have been visually confirmed at a depth of 1000 feet (305 meters) near Lyford Cay, Bahamas.

4. How long can a lionfish survive without eating?

When food is scarce, a lionfish’s metabolism can essentially crawl to a stop; Lad Akins, Director of Special Projects at REEF, said in one presentation not long ago that studies have shown that lionfish can live without food for up to 3 months and only lose 10% of their body mass.

It doesn’t look like we’re going to be able to starve them to death…

On the other hand, a different observation by James Morris, the National Oceanic and Atmospheric Administration’s pre-eminent scientist studying the invasion of lionfish into U.S. coastal waters, uncovered evidence that lionfish might be quite literally eating themselves to death. Obese lionfish are being found with internal organs completed encased in fat. In fact, these lionfish are so fat that they are suffering from liver damage!

Obese Lionfish Source: Slate

5. Are lionfish invasive in other parts of the world other than in the Western Atlantic Basin?

Yes. Lionfish, mostly Pterois miles, are being sighted in the Mediterranean Sea now. They appear to have either transited the Suez Canal from the Red Sea, where lionfish are considered a native species, or private aquarium releases are contributing to their establishment of a new non-native habitat.

Source: Green Prophet

6. Can the invasive lionfish live in fresh water?

No, not exactly. However, in Florida, they are increasingly being found in brackish, esturine environments over 4 miles inland away from the ocean where water salinity is approximately only 8 parts per thousand compared to an ocean average of 33 parts per thousand.

That’s not quite fresh water but it is scary close!

Source: The Abaco Scientist

7. Is eating lionfish healthy?

Yes, in fact eating lionfish is healthier than eating snapper or grouper because lionfish have higher concentration of heart healthy omega-3 fatty acids, scoring above snapper and grouper as well as tilapia, Bluefin tuna, mahi mahi, wahoo and other table-fish commonly served in restaurants. Lionfish are also very low in heavy metals like mercury and lead!

Nutrition Information Source: BIOFLUX
Heavy Metals Source: Science Direct

For more interesting facts about invasive lionfish, be sure to check out our Frequently Asked Questions About Lionfish page!

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Belize targets international fish markets to protect coral reefs from an uninvited visitor

At 11am on Tuesday, 2 July, the first box of filleted invasive lionfish left Belize international airport bound for Minneapolis, Minnesota.

Its contents: 5.2 kg of the invasive lionfish, Pterois volitans, a species that poses one of the greatest threats to the sustainability of coral reefs and fisheries throughout the Caribbean region.

First released accidentally into the Caribbean near Florida by aquarists in the 1980s, the predatory fish from the Indo-Pacific has no natural predators in the Atlantic, and an exploding population is steadily eating its way across the entire Caribbean Sea. From the Bahamas to Barbados, coral reefs - and the traditional fisheries they support - are now under siege from this unforeseen threat.

(Above) A lionfish's stomach contents, including a juvenile blue tang, a species protected from fishing on account of its ecological importance to Belize's reefs:  as a herbivore, it prevents corals from becoming smothered by algae. Picture © Blue Ventures

While complete eradication of this destructive fish is now impossible, consistent, high-volume removal efforts may halt population growth, diminishing the devastating threat the species poses to native fish populations. 

On Belize's World Heritage listed Barrier Reef Reserve System, efforts are now underway to do just that. Conservationists and communities are working together to confront the lion in its den, by cultivating a new international export market for this surprisingly delicious fish; a prospect that Blue Ventures has been exploring within the domestic and international spheres since 2012. 

"This market-based approach to the lionfish challenge has the potential to be replicated across the entire Caribbean region", says Jennifer Chapman, Belize Country Coordinator for Blue Ventures "It represents a scalable solution to the problems lionfish pose to both reefs and fisheries."

The development of a market for lionfish has been heralded as the most feasible and practical fisheries management solution, providing much-needed systematic reduction of lionfish in Belizean waters, whilst diversifying fisheries and reducing the pressure on already overexploited native stocks.

(Above) Lionfish can be speared or captured using traditional lobster hooks. Without a Fisheries 'Lionfish Licence', it is illegal to spearfish within protected areas or on SCUBA. Picture © Gordon Kirkwood

Thanks to efforts by the Placencia Producers' Cooperative Society Ltd and US sustainable seafood distributor, Traditional Fisheries, facilitated and supported by Blue Ventures, the Placencia Cooperative's new processing facility was awarded US Food and Drug Administration (FDA) certification on June 26th 2013.

"We're very excited about taking the first shipment here out of Belize� Right now the majority of our clients are high-end restaurants in New York City, Las Vegas, Chicago and Houston." said David Johnson, CEO of Traditional Fisheries, "We'd love to the local demand for lionfish grow and really make a difference in the Caribbean."

(Left) Left to right:Justino Mendez, Operations Manager, Placencia Cooperative, Jennifer Chapman, Blue Ventures Belize Coordinator, David Johnson, CEO, Traditional Fisheries, in front of Belize's first lionfish facility. Picture © Justino Mendez

With this certification the Placencia Cooperative facility becomes the first of its kind to process lionfish in Belize, and on its inaugural day in operation, 599 invasive lionfish were prepared both as fillets and whole fish, including the first shipment to the United States, to sell to the clients of Traditional Fisheries.

"Lionfish is not only a business for Placencia and [the cooperative's] members", said Justino Mendez of the Placencia Producers' Cooperative Society Ltd, "it is the business of the entire country; from Sarteneja all the way to Punta Gorda."

The cooperative's new facility is now entering a quality-assurance period, during which time the export volume is forecast to grow substantially. Blue Ventures is continuing to provide safe-handling training to fishers and processing plant staff. Plans to expand the local market include convening several outreach, education and taster events throughout Belize in coming months.

(Above) The first batch of lionfish processed in the Placencia Cooperatives' facility. Picture © Lee Mcloughlin 

Notes for editors:

Blue Ventures is an award-winning marine conservation organisation that works with local communities to conserve threatened marine and coastal environments, both protecting biodiversity and alleviating poverty. If you want to find out more about our work in Belize please contact Jennifer Chapman.

Placencia Producers' Cooperative Society Limited (PPCSL), Belize, works to provide support for a sustainable and secure future for younger generations and local communities. Blue Ventures works with the PPCSL to establish and grow local and export markets for lionfish.

Traditional Fisheries is the only commercial supplier of lionfish in the world. They have been a key player in the development of Belizean export markets, providing advice, assistance and guidance at every stage of market development and facility preparation.

Source

Belize Fights Back Against an Uninvited Guest

On Tuesday July 2 at 11am, a very special box left Belize on its way to the U.S. Its contents? Eleven and a half pounds of filleted lionfish (Pterois volitans), a species that poses one of the greatest threats to the sustainability of coral reefs and fisheries throughout the Caribbean.

Lionfish, an insatiable predator native to the Indian and Pacific oceans, was accidentally introduced to the western Atlantic near Florida in the 1980s. This voracious fish has been devouring its way through much of the region's marine biodiversity ever since, wreaking ecological havoc across Caribbean reefs from Panama to Puerto Rico.

With each lionfish capable of gulping down fish half its size, the unsuspecting Caribbean prey have never encountered a fish that hunts quite like it, and stand little chance in the face of their new predator's impressive bulk and menacing venomous spines. �The diverse Caribbean menu on offer has enabled the lionfish to develop a varied palate in its adopted home, gorging itself on invertebrates and reef fish alike.

Alongside its all-you-can-eat banquet, an absence of known predators in the Atlantic creates ideal breeding conditions for lionfish, with the animals reproducing at faster rates than in their native Indo-Pacific waters. This, coupled with the remarkable fecundity of female lionfish-producing up to two million eggs each year-means populations are exploding unchecked.

Five years after its first sighting in Belizean waters in 2008, lionfish are now decimating marine life along the length of the world heritage-listed Belize barrier reef. �Beyond upsetting the ecology of this global biodiversity hotspot, the lionfish invasion now stands to undermine two of Belize's most important industries: fishing and tourism.

Earning this small Caribbean nation around US $250 million each year, tourism accounts for almost one fifth of GDP, with many of the country's 800,000 annual visitors drawn by an underwater wonderland that is now imperiled by the lionfish.� And with Belize's fishing sector worth a further US $27 million and employing 1% of the population, the loss of commercially important marine species to this unwelcome visitor threatens the traditional fishing livelihoods that are the lifeblood of the country's coastal communities.

The Best Defense Is a Good Offense

But hope for Caribbean reefs is not yet lost.� While the lionfish is now so well established that complete eradication is impractical, large-scale removal of lionfish could help to slow or even halt its rapid population growth.

But how to go about this seemingly impossible task? In Belizean waters efforts are now underway to confront the lion in its lair.� The lionfish has a taste not unlike perennial favorites grouper and cod, with a delicate flavor and flaky texture.� Yet fishermen have yet to catch up with this exciting new market opportunity, often remaining wary of targeting a fish armed with rows of syringe-sharp toxic spines.

Across Belize, conservationists are now working with communities to teach fishermen lionfish handling and processing techniques, in doing so cultivating new domestic and international markets for this surprisingly delicious fish.

"The common belief among the fishers in Belize was that the sting of a lionfish was fatal" says Jen Chapman, Conservation Coordinator for Blue Ventures Belize." But when we started running handling demonstrations and the fishers saw me handling the lionfish without fear it became a matter of pride."

Developing a market for the tasty invader is the most practical management solution, creating economic incentives for the regular removal of lionfish from Belize's reefs. It also offers an alternative target species for the Belizean fishing industry, which is dominated by conch and lobster; both of which are showing signs of decline. Growth in the number of fishers has increased competition for stocks within Belize's strict quota system, resulting in the early closure of the conch fishing season two years running.� When the fishery is closed, fishing communities lose their main livelihood, buoying concerns over illegal fishing.

A Market for New Opportunities

Along Belize's sleepy mangrove-fringed northern coast lies the remote village of Sarteneja, the largest fishing community in the country. Here, fishermen carve their wooden sailing boats by hand.� They use these vessels for week-long sailing trips throughout Belize's waters. With four fifths of households dependent for income on free diving for conch and lobster, this village feels the impacts of dwindling stocks first, and deepest.

"When the conch season closes early, it affects us. We can't work, and have to try and find work elsewhere- sometimes there is none.," says a fisher from Sarteneja who didn't wish to be named. �"Lionfish has advantages- it helps us as we can catch it and sell it, but it is bad for the reef, so it is good if we fish it. Especially when the conch season is closed, we can still work on the sea."

Meanwhile, at the other end of Belize on the tip of a long, white-sand peninsula and surrounded by Mayan ruins and pristine rainforest, is Placencia; a peaceful village which has been making waves for its environmentally friendly approach to managing marine resources. �The small local fishing cooperative, which was established in 1962, has been building a global reputation for its sustainable fishing efforts and enhancing local livelihoods. The success of Placencia's seaweed farming project was the catalyst for them to explore other alternative opportunities, and develop a partnership with marine conservation NGO Blue Ventures and U.S. sustainable seafood distributor Traditional Fisheries.

"Lionfish is not only a business for Placencia and [the cooperative's] members", said Justino Mendez of the Placencia Producers' Cooperative Society Ltd. "It is a business for the entire country; from Sarteneja all the way to Punta Gorda."

The first fishing cooperative in the country to make such a bold move, Placencia now purchases lionfish harvested by local and Sartenejan fishers alike, with fish being processed in a locally-owned and managed facility. This facility, the first in Belize capable of processing lionfish, received certification from the U.S. Food and Drug Administration (FDA) in late June, authorizing export to the United States.

When Placencia's first shipment of lionfish took off from Belize's Philip S.W. Goldson International Airport bound for Minneapolis, the cooperative took a bold new step in paving the way for a Belizean lionfish fishery, setting an example for communities throughout Belize wanting to join the country's war on the lionfish.� �Already other communities are following Placencia's lead, promoting lionfish as a sustainable and delicious alternative to native reef species.

"We're very excited about taking the first shipment here out of Belize� Right now the majority of our clients are high-end restaurants in New York City, Las Vegas, Chicago and Houston" said David Johnson, CEO of Traditional Fisheries. "We'd love to see lionfish become a common fish to eat and really make a difference in the Caribbean."

There is a long way to go in the fight against the lionfish, but by swimming with the current of market-based incentives, Blue Ventures is hopeful that fishing could provide a lifeline to Belize's reefs – promoting economic growth and safeguarding ecological resilience.

SOURCE

Why we are catching lionfish with ReefCI!

The Lionfish are not indigenous to the Caribbean sea.� They are new to the sea and have no predators.� As a consequence they are able to roam the reefs of the sea, effectively eating their way through the juvenile fish stocks of the reef and as a consequence the reefs become unhealthy as they cannot progress their normal detoxification and living cycles, without a balanced population of fish and associated life.

So when the Reef CI team are out there catching Lionfish they return to base and do a dissection survey, record the results and provide the data to marine biologists so allowing work to continue to try to track the status of Lionfish populations and see if there is someway in which work can be done to restrict the population explosion.

Nothing is wasted in the dissection survey.

The meat is taken as fillets for selling to local traders to sell in the local restaurants in PG.

The venomous spines are culled and once dried and baked so making them safe they are taken to a local women’s craft co-operative who are working out how to make jewellery using the spines.

The aim is to try to derive a value chain for the fish and so prompt local fishing market and value chain in an effort to reduce the effect of the fish on the reef or the indigenous species will collapse.

Ruby, Tracy, and Abby Preparing our Dissection Survey “production line”

Ruby took down the results, Tracy dissected, and Abby photographed each of our fishy subjects.

Me measuring the Lionfish nose to end of tail, and body length

Tracy dissecting as chief biologist and this was to determine the gender

Tracy was able to determine that this Lionfish was female, albeit not mature enough to have fully developed egg sacks.

One of two fully developed egg sacks in a female lionfish (up to 10,000 eggs per release)

Stomach Contents were predominantly juvenile fish and in this case crabs

Libby cutting the tail and dorsal fin spines for use in local jewellery craft manufacture

All in all 20 fish out of the 24 fish haul were surveyed and the results tabulated and recorded in a master spread sheet for use by local fishery scientists.

To follow the rest of Trina’s adventures you can find her blog HERE

War on lionfish shows first promise of success

Richard Agraba hunts lionfish in Salt Cay, Turks and Caicos islands, British West Indies, as one part of local efforts to help reduce lionfish populations on reefs. Credit: Oregon State University

It may take a legion of scuba divers armed with nets and spears, but a new study confirms for the first time that controlling lionfish populations in the western Atlantic Ocean can pave the way for a recovery of native fish.

Even if it's one speared fish at a time, it finally appears that there's a way to fight back.

Scientists at Oregon State University, Simon Fraser University and other institutions have shown in both computer models and 18 months of field tests on reefs that reducing lionfish numbers by specified amounts - at the sites they studied, between 75-95 percent - will allow a rapid recovery of native fish biomass in the treatment area, and to some extent may aid larger ecosystem recovery as well.

It's some of the first good news in a struggle that has at times appeared almost hopeless, as this voracious, invasive species has wiped out 95 percent of native fish in some Atlantic locations.

"This is excellent news," said Stephanie Green, a marine ecologist in the College of Science at Oregon State University, and lead author on the report just published in Ecological Applications. "It shows that by creating safe havens, small pockets of reef where lionfish numbers are kept low, we can help native species recover.

"And we don't have to catch every lionfish to do it."

That's good, researchers say, because the rapid spread of lionfish in the Atlantic makes eradication virtually impossible. They've also been found thriving in deep water locations which are difficult to access.

This is a lionfish near a sunken ship in the Caribbean Sea. Credit: Oregon State University

Some of the fish that recovered, such as Nassau grouper and yellowtail snapper, are critically important to local economies. And larger adults can then spread throughout the reef system - although the amount of system recovery that would take place outside of treated areas is a subject that needs additional research, they said.

Where no intervention was made, native species continued to decline and disappear.

The lionfish invasion in the Atlantic, believed to have begun in the 1980s, now covers an area larger than the entirety of the United States. With venomous spines, no natural predators in the Atlantic Ocean, and aggressive behavior, the lionfish have been shown to eat almost anything smaller than they are - fish, shrimp, crabs and octopus. Lionfish can also withstand starvation for protracted periods - many of their prey species will disappear before they do.

Governments, industry and conservation groups across this region are already trying to cull lionfish from their waters, and encourage their use as a food fish. Some removal efforts have concentrated on popular dive sites.

The scientists said in their report that the model used in this research should work equally well in various types of marine habitat, including mangroves, temperate hard-bottom systems, estuaries and seagrass beds.

A major issue to be considered, however, is where to allocate future removal efforts. Marine reserves, which often allow "no take" of any marine life in an effort to recover fish populations, may need to be the focus of lionfish removal. The traditional, hands-off concept in such areas may succeed only in wiping out native species while allowing the invasive species to grow unchecked.

Keeping lionfish numbers low in areas that are hot spots for juvenile fish, like mangroves and shallow reefs, is also crucial, the report said.

This research was done in collaboration with scientists at Simon Fraser University, the Reef Environmental Education Foundation, and the Cape Eleuthera Institute. It has been supported by the Natural Science and Engineering Research Council of Canada, the Boston Foundation and a David H. Smith Conservation Research Fellowship.

"Many invasions such as lionfish are occurring at a speed and magnitude that outstrips the resources available to contain and eliminate them," the researchers wrote in their conclusion. "Our study is the first to demonstrate that for such invasions, complete extirpation is not necessary to minimize negative ecological changes within priority habitats."

Source

VIDEO: Lionfish spearing in Southern Belize

Removing the invasive Lionfish, very sustainable and delicious to eat!!!

Vendors sceptical about lionfish

University of Southampton postgraduate researcher Fadilah Ali showing how to prepare lionfish to be turned into delicious lionfish and bake.

Lionfish and bake may taste delicious but the misconception that it is poisonous remains the biggest obstacle for its acceptance as an alternative to shark and bake.�This is the view of University of Southampton postgraduate researcher Fadilah Ali. Ali, the PhD candidate who has dissected more than 10,000 lionfish, told the Sunday Guardian via e-mail that the lionfish was not poisonous, but that the tips of its barbs contained venom instead. If it stuck someone, it would be painful but was not fatal, and no one has died from it.�

Ali said throughout the Caribbean there was a great misconception that the lionfish was poisonous and as a result there was a general unwillingness to eat the fish.�She said education via the media was the only way to clear up these misconceptions and also prove to people the benefits of eating lionfish.�

Ali said another means was to expose people to successful case studies using other islands like Jamaica and Belize which exported lionfish. She also gave examples of lionfish culinary competitions, a lionfish cookbook-proof that people were eating lionfish and surviving.�She said organising lionfish tasting events was another way to overcome this perception.�

Shark has been good�to the Fergusons
The Sunday Guardian returned to Maracas on Wednesday and asked vendors, fishermen and visitors for their comments after the first lionfish and bake taste-test was conducted at Richard's Bake and Shark shop, by Papa Bois Conservation director Marc de Verteuil, Institute of Marine Affairs coral reef ecologist Jahson Alemu and Ali on February 15.�The shark has been good to the Fergusons. Four out of the six shark and seafood shops at Maracas are owned by family members, creating a veritable shark-and-bake dynasty.�

Giselle Ferguson, from Richard's, said since the article was published in the Sunday Guardian's February 16 edition, four out of ten people came to the popular establishment asking if they had lionfish on the menu.�She said the other six stuck to the bake and shark staple that Richard's is famous for among tourists and locals alike. Ferguson said customers may probably want to try the lionfish, but they needed more knowledge of the species as they were afraid of the lionfish's venom.�

Gary Ferguson, the owner of Richard's and Giselle's brother, said, "A lot of people came and asked about the lionfish, but not everybody wants to try it.

'People asking for the fish'
"The feedback we got from the people was anything that is poisonous they don't want any part of it.�"They keep asking if I have and I tell them I don't. It was the environmentalists who brought just a few lionfish, and we prepared it in our kitchen for them to test."�Ferguson said people will know the difference between the shark and lionfish as they were two different textures and quality of meat.�He said perhaps lionfish could be on the menu in the future, as well as red fish or grouper and bake, but shark remained the main delicacy in T&T.

People came from all over the world to try Richard's shark and bake as it was also very healthy, hence the reason why most of the population loved shark, Ferguson said with a hearty laugh.�He said his grandmother, 95-year-old "Ma" Ferguson, the matriarch of the family, was living testament to the health benefits of eating shark and not eating meat, as she was very strong.�According to Ferguson, sharks don't develop cancer and were good to treat ailments such as arthritis and inflammation.

However, the manager of the US-based conservation group, Pew Charitable Trusts, Angelo Villagomez said sharks do not have cancer-fighting properties.

'I will lose customers�if I start to sell it'
Ferguson said sharks were very healthy to eat. His grandmother utilised most parts of the shark, using the liver to make shark oil, head, fins and bones which they all grew up on also.�Patsy Ferguson, of Patsy's Bake and Shark and Gary's aunt, said the lionfish was too dangerous to eat and was too much of a risk.�She said since the Sunday Guardian's lionfish story was printed, a lot of customers came asking if she was selling it as they wanted no part of it, believing the lionfish to be poisonous.�

Patsy said if she started to sell lionfish, she will lose customers. �She said, "When my customers come here they ask for shark or king fish, they don't want no other fish.�"People use to say we're selling catfish, that is a no-no, we sell strictly mako shark, blue shark or blacktip shark that comes from Suriname, we don't get any from Las Cuevas or Maracas.�"People used to sell catfish but not me or my family."�

Ian Ferguson, from Nathalie's Bake and Shark and Gary's brother, said people in Maracas were not accustomed or familiar with lionfish and their specialty was shark.�A bake-and-shark lover said she didn't ask what type of shark she was eating, but she enjoyed it and didn't think of any of the consequences. She said she wouldn't want to eat such a predator like the lionfish. �

Leo Kowlessar, a Trinidadian living in New York, said he didn't believe that sharks will ever get wiped out because there were so many different types of sharks all over the world, and if one species became scarce, they will find another shark species. �

Aboud:�Longline vessels decimating shark, other marine life
Speaking in a brief telephone interview from China, on Thursday, Fishermen and Friends of the Sea (FFOS) secretary Gary Aboud said the scores of Taiwanese longline fishing vessels operating in local waters were responsible not only for decimating shark species but were also depleting other marine life.�Sonny, from Canada, said lionfish can probably replace shark if it was being overfished.

Maria, from Venezuela said shark was not as popular in her homeland as here, however, it should not be overfished to the point of extinction. Terry Lee suggested creating�new and innovative dishes instead such as lionfish accra and pholourie instead of looking for a substitute for shark and bake.�Aria said she would have to taste it to make a judgment call.�John said he wouldn't eat lionfish because the venom it carried was enough of a deterrent.

Fisherman "Master Brother John" from the Maracas Fishing Depot said one of the fishermen received a puncture in his arm from a lionfish's barb in his net but the injury was not serious when he want for medical attention.�John confirmed the lionfish was in T&T waters, but they were only catching a few in their nets.�Fisherman Clement Vargas said if the lionfish was in abundance, it could be used as an alternative to shark, but so can other readily available species of fish.

Another fisherman named "Django" said those who fish had some species that they kept for themselves, such as "power," and they knew how to cook catfish and even stingray to make them taste like shark and the average consumer wouldn't be able to tell the difference.

Papa Bois launches�campaign to save the shark
Papa Bois Conservation launched its campaign to raise awareness in T&T about the worldwide threats to sharks from overfishing at the current unsustainable rate on February 23.�The launch took place at the Maracas turn-off, leading to the bake-and-shark haven in Maracas Bay.�The report was carried in the international media, such as the London Metro, Washington Post and Associated Press.�

De Verteuil said he was preparing to meet with the shark-and-bake vendors to do a presentation on shark conservation, the consequences of depleting shark populations, and the lionfish as a possible alternative to shark and bake.

Source

Invasive lionfish imperiling ecosystem

It sounds like something from a horror film: A beautiful, feathery-looking species of fish with venomous spines and a voracious appetite sweeps into the Gulf of Mexico, gobbling up everything in its path.

Unfortunately for the native fish and invertebrates it's eating, this invasion isn't unfolding on the big screen.

In recent months, news has been spreading of lionfish, a maroon-and-white striped native of the South Pacific that first showed up off the coast of southern Florida in 1985. Most likely, someone dumped a few out of a home fish tank. With a reproduction rate that would put rabbits to shame and no predators to slow its march, the fish swept up the Eastern seaboard and down to the Bahamas and beyond, where it is now more common than in its home waters.

"The invasive lionfish have been nearly a perfect predator," says Martha Klitzkie, director of operations at the nonprofit Reef Environmental Education Foundation, or REEF, headquartered in Key Largo, Fla. "Because they are such an effective predator, they're moving into new areas and, when they get settled, the population increases pretty quickly."

The lionfish population exploded in the Florida Keys and the Bahamas between 2004 and 2010. As lionfish populations boomed, the number of native prey fish dropped. According to a 2012 study by Oregon State University, native prey fish populations along nine reefs in the Bahamas fell an average of 65 percent in just two years.

Lionfish first appeared in the western Gulf of Mexico in 2010; scientists spotted them in the Flower Garden Banks National Marine Sanctuary, a protected area about 100 miles off the Texas coast, in 2011. Now scuba divers spot them on coral heads nearly every time they explore a reef. So far, significant declines in native fish populations haven't occurred here, but the future is uncertain.

'IMPOSSIBLE BATTLE'

"It's kind of this impossible battle," says Michelle Johnston, a research specialist at the National Oceanic and Atmospheric Administration in Galveston, who manages a coral reef monitoring project at the Flower Garden Banks. "When you think how many are out there, I don't think eradication is possible now."

Two nearly identical species are found in the Gulf. They grow to about 18 inches and have numerous venomous spines. Their stripes are unique, like those of a zebra. They hover in the water, hanging near coral heads or underwater structures where reef fish flourish. Ambush predators, they wait for prey fish to draw near, then gulp them down in a flash.

The fish mature in a year and can spawn every four days, pumping out 2 million eggs a year. They live about 15 years.

In the South Pacific, predators and parasites keep lionfish in check. But here, nothing recognizes them as food - those feathery spines serve as do-not-touch warnings to other fish. The few groupers that have been spotted taste-testing lionfish have spit them back out, Johnston says.

In the basement of the NOAA Fisheries Science Center on the grounds of the old Fort Crockett in Galveston, Johnston sorts through a rack of glass vials. Each one contains the contents found in the stomach of a lionfish collected in the Flower Garden Banks.

She points to a fish called a bluehead wrasse in one jar. "This little guy should still be on the reef eating algae, not here in a tube," she says. Other jars contain brown chromis, red night shrimp, cocoa damselfish and mantis shrimp, all native species found in lionfish bellies. "The amount of fish we find in their guts - it's really alarming. They're eating juvenile fish that should be growing up. They're also eating fish that the native species are supposed to be eating."

Lionfish can eat anything that fits into their mouth, even fish half their own size. They eat commercially important species, such as snapper and grouper, and the fish that those species eat, too. They're eating so much, in fact, that scientists say some are suffering from a typically human problem - obesity. "We're finding them with copious amount of fat - white, blubbery fat," Johnston says.

They can adapt to almost any habitat, living anywhere from a mangrove in 1 foot of water to a reef 1,000 feet deep. They like crevices and holes but can find that on anything from a coral head to a drilling platform to a sunken ship. They can handle a wide range of salinity levels, too. Their range seems limited only by temperature - so far they don't seem to overwinter farther north than Cape Hatteras, North Carolina - and their southern expansion extends to the northern tip of South America, although they are expected to reach the middle of Argentina in another year or two.

'A SNOWBALL EFFECT'

"As long as they have something to eat, they'll be there," Johnston says.

The impact of their invasion could become widespread, scientists warn.

In the Gulf, lionfish are eating herbivores like damselfish and wrasse - "the lawnmowers of the reef," Johnston calls them - that keep the reef clean.

"When you take the reef fish away, there's not a lot of other things left to eat algae," she says.

That creates a phase shift from a coral-dominated habitat to an algae-dominated one. "When you take fish away, coral gets smothered, the reef dies, and we lose larger fish. It's a snowball effect of negativity."

The only known way to keep lionfish populations in check, scientists say, is human removal.

That's why lionfish "derbies," or fishing tournaments of sorts, are popping up around the Caribbean and Gulf.

Locals are encouraged to kill and gather the fish, and in some places, including Belize, cook them up afterward.

The key is getting people to understand that lionfish are safe to eat - and tasty.

SOURCE

How bad is the lionfish invasion? We're now trying to train sharks to eat them

Back in 1985, a lone lionfish was first spotted off the Florida coast, possibly dumped into the ocean by a dissatisfied aquarium owner. At the time, it seemed harmless enough: a bright, colorful fish native to Indonesia that had somehow made its way over here.

No one could have imagined the disaster that would follow.

Thirty years later, the venomous lionfish has conquered the Atlantic, the Caribbean, and the Gulf of Mexico wreaking havoc on ecosystems up and down the coast. Unlike in its native Pacific habitats, there are few natural predators here to keep this invasive species in check. So the lionfish has expanded voraciously, gobbling up other reef fish and mollusks and attacking commercially important species like grouper and snapper.

By 2014, lionfish were everywhere, from North Carolina and even Rhode Island down to the coasts of Panama and Venezuela:

Lionfish sightings, 1985-2014. (US Geological Survey/Florida Fish and Wildlife Conservation Commission)

Now humans are trying every desperate measure they can think of to slow the lionfish invasion - from�hunting them to putting them�on restaurant menus to training local sharks�to eat them up. Here's a look at the war on lionfish:

Why lionfish are devouring the Atlantic

The lionfish invasion likely began with just a handful of fish, spreading slowly during the 1980s and 1990s, and then exploding after 2005.

Because the lionfish have venomous spines, they have few natural predators - particularly in the Atlantic and Caribbean. And lionfish can survive in all sorts of marine environments, deep or shallow, salty or less salty. They also spawn like crazy, with a female releasing some 2 million eggs per year.

And here's the bad news: Lionfish are extremely adept at scarfing up everything in sight - particularly in and around vital coral reefs. Other predators might snack on a few reef fish when there are plenty to go around and then move along when the population thins out. Not lionfish. As researchers from Oregon State University�recently discovered, lionfish will stay in one area and keep devouring smaller fish and mollusks - often until the local population goes extinct.

Scientists continue to be amazed at how destructive lionfish can be. One�experiment in the Bahamas found that lionfish can gobble up 79 percent of juvenile fish in a reef in just five weeks. What's more, they often kill off key species like the parrotfish, which clean algae off corals. As a result, one�recent study found that a lionfish invasion can lead to a 10 percent decline in Caribbean reefs, which soon get overrun by slimy algae.

The problem is only likely to get worse. Another�recent NOAA study found that lionfish prefer warmer waters and were likely to keep carving out fresh territory as global warming heats up the oceans.

The 5 best ideas we have for stopping lionfish (so far)

Now people are frantically searching for ways to stop the lionfish's spread.

We enter this fight with a few advantages - humans, after all, are the planet's apex predator, having wiped out half of all wildlife since the 1970s. But the lionfish has been surprisingly difficult to kill. Here are our five best ideas so far:

1) Hunt them! Back in 2013, Florida held a contest in which divers competed to spear and kill the most lionfish, with $3,500 worth of prizes at stake. As Hannah Hoag�described in Nature, hunting competitions are actually a decent idea - and becoming much more frequent. Scientists have found that frequent efforts by divers to cull even just a fraction of lionfish can allow local fish populations to rebound.

One problem? Hunting invasive species down can be difficult.�Florida tried this with the Burmese pythons that were overrunning its swamps, and the pythons are still there. What's more, culls can sometimes backfire - if they only take out the weaker fish and allow the stronger ones to thrive. So, Hoag reports, marine biologists are trying to make these lionfish "derbies" a bit more scientific and focused on efforts that will do the most damage.

2) Eat them! Our appetite for sushi�has nearly eradicated global bluefin tuna populations. So why don't we start eating lionfish instead? As The New York Times recently reported, many Florida restaurants are starting to serve up lionfish, whose flaky white meat is pretty good when cooked. (Here's�a good-looking recipe for lionfish sliders.) The hitch? It's still labor-intensive to hunt these fish. We can't just scoop them up with fishing nets - divers have to get out there and spear them.

3) Train sharks to eat them! In theory, Caribbean reef sharks could eat up lionfish - after all, the sharks aren't affected by the venomous tentacles. But most local sharks aren't used to this garish newcomer and typically stay clear.

So, in places like�Cuba and�Honduras, divers have recently been spearing lionfish and physically handing them over to sharks - in the hopes that sharks will acquire a predilection for lionfish flesh. You can see some pictures of this practice from Mathieu Foulique here.

The downsides? This is quite dangerous for the divers, and only those experienced in shark behaviors should give this a try. More importantly, it's not clear how effective this actually is - some experts�worry that it just teaches sharks to go after�people. Here's�a video of divers in Belize trying to teach reef sharks to kill:

(Claudette Miller/Youtube)

4) Stop importing them! This one's a little less exciting, but obvious. Lionfish are a mainstay in many aquariums, thanks to their vivid colors and garish tentacles. But if lots of people own lionfish, that increases the odds that some will escape into the wild. So, recently, the Florida Fish and Wildlife Conservation Commission�voted to ban both the importation of live lionfish into the state.

5) When in doubt, make an iPhone app! Florida regulators are trying lots of things to encourage lionfish hunting (you no longer need a license to hunt the fish down). But they're also asking the public for help. In September, the state released a�"Report Lionfish" app, in which people can send in sightings. The first 250 to do so get a "Lionfish Control Team" t-shirt.

Still, it remains to be seen whether any of these ideas will work. Some experts remain skeptical. "Unfortunately,"�says the National Oceanic and Atmospheric Administration, "invasive lionfish populations will continue to grow and cannot be eliminated using conventional methods. Marine invaders are nearly impossible to eradicate once established." At best, we can only try to keep them under control.

Further reading

Paul Greenberg�wrote a great piece for Food & Wine magazine�about hunting and eating lionfish back in 2011.

Study: Caribbean coral reefs�could disappear "within a few decades"

Here's a video of what it's like to hunt lionfish.

Source

Divers try spoon feeding lionfish to sharks, a method that could come back to bite them

In the war against invasive lionfish, Andr�s Jim�nez has taken up one of the oldest weapons used by humans: the spear.

Jim�nez thinks this is a novel approach to help rid the Caribbean Ocean of a growing menace. He skewers the colorful fish into a kabob, swims to coral in a marine sanctuary off the coast of Cuba and holds it bleeding and squirming under the jaws of reef sharks.

The idea is to get sharks to develop a taste for a fish they are not accustomed to eating. That's right, Jim�nez, who co-manages a dive operation in the Gardens of the Queen National Marine Park, is trying to teach one of the Caribbean's biggest predators to eat a new type of fish.

The lionfish is an exotic glutton that eats everything it can stuff in its mouth, and the fish are destroying life on the coral reef. Native to the Pacific Ocean, the fish were widely traded for their looks and were first spotted near Miami in the mid-1980s before proliferating in the Gulf of Mexico, the Atlantic and the Caribbean near the turn of the century.

They have been called the Norway rats of the Atlantic and Caribbean because they are voracious eaters that wolf down scores of reef animals from Florida to Mexico and Venezuela but have no predator in those waters.

Spoon-feeding sharks, as Jim�nez has done in recent weeks, is the latest desperate attempt to restore the balance of an ecosystem that humans threw out of whack.

Reef sharks are thought to be one of a few animals that can choke down a lionfish. To avoid the toxic spikes on its back and tail fin, said Antonio Busiello, they eat the fish starting at its mouth.

Busiello, a photography documentarian in Florence, said he watched that happen while diving in Honduras with park officials who speared lionfish and fed them to reef sharks in 2010. His Web site is full of pictures depicting the action.

But marine ecologist Serena Hackerott and her colleagues at the University of North Carolina at Chapel Hill said feeding lionfish to sharks is crazy. Sharks "are going to associate divers with food," she said.

In a test of 71 ocean sites - in Mexico, Belize, Honduras, Cuba and the Bahamas - UNC researchers found nothing to show that lionfish are shark bait, according to a paper published last year in the journal PLOS One.

"I've been a diver for more than 10 years and have never felt threatened by a shark," Hackerott wrote in a recent blog post. "I might not feel so comfortable, though, if sharks began to expect snacks every time I enter the water."

It's a justifiable fear that often plays out at the sanctuary, Jim�nez said. In an e-mail from Cuba, he wrote that "sharks don't seem to be hunting for lionfish naturally, but they are really mad for dead or injured lionfish, and they get used to being fed lionfish by divers. They learn fast and improve ways to get that lionfish once the diver captures it."

When Jim�nez dives with groups of divers and photographers, the sightseeing can become tense and dangerous.

For example, he wrote, "An injured lionfish escapes the sharks and then the sharks get really mad. They start looking for the prey everywhere, and in this quest they . . . sometimes hit divers with the nose, or can even try to bite the spear, the rocks where the lionfish is hiding, or the cameras. Then the situation sometimes gets out of control."

Busiello can testify to this behavior. When he traveled to Roatan Marine Park in Honduras four years ago to see thousands of grouper in a mating ritual and "missed the moment," he wound up diving to watch lionfish get fed to the park's 22 gray reef sharks.

The sharks came close - 15 inches from his camera. "I got bumped a couple of times. They hit me on the side," Busiello said. "A big shark, a six- to seven-foot shark hits you, you feel it."

Somehow the recommended approach to reducing the lionfish population has been twisted around, Hackerott said: They should be overfished for human consumption, not reef sharks. The pretty fish is poisonous, but when a chef rips out its spine and cooks it, lionfish are delicious.

There's no witness to an instance of someone releasing lionfish into the waters in Florida, but that's the largely accepted working theory for how they ended up there.

This sort of thing keeps happening in the United States, the second-largest market for the legal trade of wildlife. Florida in particular is overrun with Burmese pythons, tegu lizards from South America and Cuban tree frogs, to name just a few invasive animals.

The Chesapeake Bay region is fighting the aggressive Asian northern snakehead fish that eats native fish, and efforts to harvest it from rivers have done little to stop it. Asian carp that spread from Arkansas to the Great Lakes region and Louisiana have outmuscled native fish for food, leaving many to starve.

The voracious appetite of the lionfish is why divers and marine biologists want to eliminate them, but feeding them to sharks is a scary task, Jim�nez said. "I am [spearing them] very seldom, as it gets dangerous," he said. "You can't do it in all spots, only in places with small shark populations."

Teaching sharks to eat lionfish "is a double-edged sword," said Ian Drysdale, the Honduras coordinator for the Healthy Reefs Initiative. "You don't want to relate human divers with shark feed. It can get out of hand."

Washington Post

OPEN YOUR EYES TOPIC: THE IMPORTANCE OF LIONFISHING IN BELIZE

In Belize, Critically endangered wrasse now favorite food of invasive lionfish

A lionfish shown with two mature female social wrasses, “Halichoeres socialis,”recovered from its stomach in Belize. (Photo by Luiz Rocha)

Scientists examining the stomach contents of invasive lionfish caught on the inner barrier reef of Belize have discovered that nearly half of the diet of these aggressive fish consists of a critically endangered fish known as the social wrasse (Halichoeres socialis).

The social wrasse is one of five coral reef fishes listed at the highest risk of extinction on the Red List of the International Union for Conservation of Nature. Found only on clear-water reefs around inshore mangrove islands in Belize, "its combination of traits-small size, schooling, and low, hovering behavior-make it an easy target for the lionfish," says Smithsonian scientist Carole Baldwin of the Division of Fishes at the National Museum of Natural History in Washington, D.C.

The critically endangered social wrasse, “Halichoeres socialis,” in reefs around mangrove islands of the Belize inner barrier reef. (Photo by Luiz Rocha)

"The social wrasse is already under heavy stress from habitat destruction by development. Added pressure from lionfish predation may spell extinction for the social wrasse,” Baldwin and co-authors write in a recent article in the Journal of the International Society for Reef Studies. Other Caribbean fish species with traits similar to the social wrasse and limited ranges may face the same fate.

A Pacific fish popular in the aquarium trade, lionfish (Pterois volitans and P. miles) were introduced to the Atlantic in the mid-1990s. Today they are found along the U.S. Atlantic coast from Rhode Island to Florida, in the Bahamas and Gulf of Mexico and throughout the Caribbean. "Invasive lionfish are two to three times more effective at removing small native fishes than are native predators," the scientists write. Lionfish are the latest in a long list of threats to Caribbean coral reefs, other threats include climate change, habitat destruction and pollution.

Range of the social wrasse, Halichoeres socialis (dashed
yellow line), and lionfish collecting sites (yellow stars). Map data from SIO, NOAA, USA Navy, NGA, and GEBCO downloaded from Google Earth.

During their study the scientists speared 68 lionfish within the habitat range of the social wrasse and removed their stomachs. Of the 44 stomachs found to contain recently eaten fish, the scientists identified the consumed prey by morphology and through DNA analysis. Social wrasses represented 46 percent of the fishes found in lionfish stomachs, making them the primary prey item of the lionfish. One lionfish had 18 social wrasses in its stomach.

While the social wrasse lives only in shallow water, the lionfish is able to exploit deeper depths. For example, Baldwin is currently studying fish living in deep tropical reefs (as deep as 660 feet) off the coast of Curacao, and has encountered large numbers of lionfish eating native species there. "My worry is that they are decimating species of native fish that have yet to even be discovered," she says.

Lionfish sashimi (Photo by Carole Baldwin)

While the lionfish invasion of the Caribbean cannot be stopped, "targeted removals have reduced lionfish numbers in many areas," the scientists write, mainly by divers seeking them for food. "Lionfish is delicious-cooked or as sushi/sashimi/ceviche-which lends hope to efforts that we will be able to control their numbers," Baldwin explains.

Some fisherman want nothing to do with lionfish because of the potential of being stung by their neurotoxin-containing fin spines, which at a minimum cause hours of excruciating pain, Baldwin says. In rare cases a lionfish sting can cause paralysis and even death.

Close-up of Carole Baldwin’s hand following a lionfish sting. (Photo by Carole Baldwin)

While conducting their study, Baldwin and co-author Luiz Rocha of the California Academy of Sciences, were stung "because we put speared lionfish into mesh bags while scuba diving, and venomous spines poking from the bag got us," Baldwin explains. "Divers are now using lionfish containment devices, which are containers made with PVC pipe. Once you get the lionfish into the container, no worries."

"On the whole, the social wrasse is just one brick in the wall we call biodiversity," Baldwin says. The coral reef ecosystem "won't crumble by removing one brick, but at some point if enough�bricks are removed, it will."

SmithsonianScience.org

Feeding Lionfish to a Nurse Shark in Belize

Map shows ‪Lionfish‬ invasion in Continent and Caribbean, 1985-2014

Underwater hunting safari in Belize

Framed in scuba bubbles, the author, Josh White, waves during a dive at Turneffe Atoll on the Belize Barrier Reef, part of the world's second-largest reef system.

A school of shimmering silver jack had just glided by overhead as I crested the reef, where a trio of tall orange sponges rose toward an outcropping of coral and a pair of purple sea fans framed the opening of a dark nook.

My heart raced and my breath quickened, a rush of bubbles streaming upward as I caught sight of my prey. The billowy fins, the showy spikes shooting from its spine, the majestic stripes flowing into the distinctive mane.

The lionfish.

It hovered carelessly in the pristine, bath-warm waters, this sea creature of local legend. I raised an arm, stretched a small piece of elastic cord, and sent a spear through the back of its head. Success! Death at 60 feet below the surface. I was now more than just a scuba diver. I was a trained killer.

Diving, in its common form, is a gentle adventure. I've heard many experienced divers liken it to an underwater hike or safari. Thrills come from spotting a rare fish, marveling at a soaring ray or spying a reef shark as it slips by.

The white-sand beaches at Turneffe are lined with palm trees, hibiscus and plumeria.

One of the main tenets of scuba diving is that you are to look and not touch. Leave the ocean and all its inhabitants as you found them. Visit and admire their world, let them live in it. That is, except for the lionfish.

On a recent visit to a stunning atoll about 35 miles east of Belize City, the divemasters - and the national government - all but implored us to kill this magnificent monster. Although the lionfish is a beauty, they'll tell you, it is an invader to the Caribbean Sea, a scourge on the Belize Barrier Reef, the second largest in the world.

The lionfish - native to the Pacific Ocean and believed to have been introduced to the Atlantic when a beachside aquarium in Florida broke during Hurricane Andrew in 1992 - has no natural predators here. It reproduces often and in great number. It eats its weight in local juvenile fish every day or two. It has a bevy of venom-laced triangular-tipped spikes that keep larger fish away. And it is slowly destroying the natural balance that keeps the reef vibrant. Posters in the dive shack say it is "wanted dead or alive," and the government has at times offered a bounty.

The reef is filled with aquatic life, including this feather star.

So on dives that normally would have been tranquil meanderings gazing at coral or staring at flamingo tongue snails, many of us carried spears and searched the reef for lionfish. Kill them, kill them all.

A private island

The lionfish hunts added adrenaline and intrigue to a journey that probably didn't need it; these islands off the coast of Belize offer some of the most interesting diving, nature and oceanscapes imaginable. The trip was the first my wife, Nikki, and I have made to Central America, with the promise of a dive haven. It didn't disappoint.

Nikki had wanted to travel abroad for her 40th birthday, and she had some requirements: The destination had to be tropical, scuba diving had to be on the menu, and we had to leave the kids at home. Nikki wanted to try a live-aboard boat, something that I feared because, well, what if you get stuck with a whole group of people you don't like? Even a big boat could get very small very quickly.

Instead, we lucked into Turneffe Island Resort, a 14-acre private island that sits at the southern end of the atoll. It is, in many ways, like a live-aboard boat: It can host about 40 guests at a time from Saturday to Saturday, all the meals are served family-style, there's a bar by the pool and a limited number of activities. Which is to say, if you don't dive, fish or kayak, you'd better be prepared for a lot of lounging around. (Not such a bad thing, really.)

After arriving at Belize City's airport, we met up with a boat that took us directly out into the ocean. The 90-minute ride took us past slim barrier islands dotted with fishing shacks and then through dense mangroves. On the other side: Turneffe.

The resort advertises itself as a private island, and it turns out to be exactly what you imagine celebrities get when they vacation on their "private islands." White-sand beaches, 80-degree azure ocean, more staff than guests, postcard views in every direction, and of course, privacy.

Our "room" was a stand-alone villa on the beach a few hundred feet from the waves lapping up on the sand. A screened-in front porch (vital at night because of mosquitoes) opened to a polished mahogany living area with high ceilings and a four-poster king bed.

Missing was a television: There are no TVs on the island, nor are there telephones. If you haven't gone a week without television - and I hadn't in a very long time - it is liberating. There is, however, Wi-Fi.

One of our favorite perks: predawn coffee service brought to our porch, allowing us to sip fresh Belizean brew as the sun began to ease over the atoll.

The beach in front of our villa was dotted with manicured palm trees and hibiscus and plumeria; the sand was neatly combed every morning and, seemingly by magic, had perfect ridges again when we returned at night. A dock and breakwater jutted out into the ocean, where a blissful breeze cooled a thatched gazebo with two chaise longues; it was there that I rediscovered napping in the lazy afternoons.

Let's dive

But Turneffe is primarily a dive and fishing resort. Mornings started early with a breakfast in the main lodge at 7:30 before the boats pushed off for dive sites promptly at 8:15. On most days, there were two dives in the morning and one dive in the afternoon. In all, we did 15 dives from Sunday to Friday.

The diving mostly took place about five minutes from the resort, meaning no long nausea-inducing boat rides. We would push off from the docks and almost immediately need to be in our gear.

Burley Bradford Garbutt, 46 - he goes by Brad - led us to sites with such names as "Three Amigos" and "The Zoo" and "Fabian's Roost." His hourlong tours were filled with spotted toadfish and free-swimming eels, goliath grouper and rainbow parrotfish, stingrays and eagle rays and occasional cruise-bys from the majestic hawksbill turtle.

Brad, a Belizean native who used to be a commercial fisherman, has gone on thousands of dives here. He started each of ours with a cheery "Let's see what nature has in store for us" and would gleefully tap on his tank underwater - tink, tink, tink, tink - to alert us to the underwater treasures he found hiding in crags and holes and among the sponges.

One dive site, the "Wreck of the Sayonara," was around the scant remains of a dive boat that used to run off Turneffe decades ago. Its captain was Brad's father.

A visit to the atoll must include a day trip to the Great Blue Hole, a national monument and international treasure that is like no other dive site. It is, quite literally, a hole in the ocean floor. Formed as a glacial cave more than 100,000 years ago, it ultimately collapsed under the weight of the rising ocean, forming a perfectly round sinkhole nearly 1,000 feet across and more than 400 feet deep. Seen from above, it has a midnight blue far more intense than the shallow waters around it. At about 120 feet down a sheer wall you find an amazing array of ancient stalactites - proof that this was once long ago dry land. "They still get me," Brad said.

And next to the Blue Hole, on Half Moon Caye, is a nature preserve that would have commanded Darwin's attention. In addition to being home to massive iguanas and hermit crabs, the small island is rife with red-footed boobies and soaring frigate birds, with a (searing hot) stand amid the trees that puts you eye-to-eye with the birds as they nest.

Back at Turneffe, the resort also offers a night dive, perhaps the most awe-inspiring hour of the whole visit. Though daunting to slip into darkness, the ocean is perhaps more alive under the moon than in the light of day.

Wave a hand through the water, and sparks fly: Small bioluminescent creatures evoke embers from a campfire. Handheld flashlights revealed octopus wandering along the coral (one turned shock-white and inked at another diver before going orange and shooting away) and lobsters ambling through the sand. We even caught a glimpse of a decorator crab, which sticks coral and shells and small animals to itself as camouflage.

Taste of victory

A stay at Turneffe is not roughing it, and that's reflected in high-end prices, service and accommodations. But you do get what you pay for. Staff members learned and remembered our names, and the food - fresh snapper, grilled pork loin, traditional Belizean rice and beans in coconut milk, seviche - was tremendous.

For those seeking a vacation with shopping and nightlife, this definitely is not the right place. You're on an island far from civilization. After dinner, we shared the bar/pool area with other guests, including a fun-loving group of anesthesiologists from Galveston, Texas, a honeymooning couple from Austria and a husband-wife team of travel agents from San Diego.

We spent those evenings with George Cocom, 41, a bartender who has been working on Turneffe for nine years. In addition to serving drinks - from nightly special concoctions that often had a blue hue to fresh drafts of Belikan, the local beer - George is a skilled entertainer. He's learned a trove of card, dice, rope and other tricks, and he delighted in mystifying guests between raucous games of liar's dice around the circular bar.

A new batch of guests could change the island's dynamic. There were just more than 20 of us there that week; double that number and things would have been different. Stock the island with your friends and family, and imagine the possibilities.

We were even able to celebrate the engagement of one of the doctor couples, as Nicholas Juan, 30, asked Mindy Milosch, 29, to marry him. They celebrated by hunting lionfish.

Milosch bagged "tons" of lionfish on the trip, getting quite good at using the spear and "loving it." The group was nabbing them left and right, often feeding them to eels and grouper that would linger, knowing they might get a meal out of it. Sadly, the reef denizens won't go after a living lionfish because of their poisonous spikes, but dead, the venom dissipates into the water and the spikes fall; divemasters hope the native predators will get a taste for it and do their own hunting.

We kept some of the lionfish, bringing them to the dock and handing them over to the staff. Some of the fish were pregnant; some still had dead reef fish in their mouths.

And a short time later, sitting at the mahogany bar and looking out over an endless sea at sunset, we clinked mugs of Belikan, sat back and snacked on lightly breaded lionfish bites. The taste of victory? Pretty darned good.

Star-Tribune

LIONFISH - Belize

Lionfish Are Coming To Whole Foods!

In a weird way, lionfish are kind of adorable. From their mane to their stripes to their little unicorn horn, you might be inclined to think that lionfish are good little pets. Oh, but actually, they're a highly destructive invasive species who breed like crazy, have venomous spines, destroy the environment and resources of native fish, hurt like hell when stepped on, and, because of their high population, are turning into friggin' cannibals. Yikes.

However, Whole Foods is looking to turn this invasive fish into an edible fish. In the next six months, Whole Foods will start selling lionfish at the counter in their West Coast locations. Eventually, the chain hopes to expand the sale of lionfish to all of its 431 stores.

The way Whole Foods chooses to source its seafood is actually based on sustainability ratings for fish buyers to help make eco-conscious choices that protect the oceans. The scores are given by Monterey Bay Aquarium's Seafood Watch, which gave lionfish a "Best Choice" rating (there are tons of them and, unlike so many fish, population is growing out of control. Which is great, considering that the National Oceanic and Atmospheric Administration has been begging people to eat lionfish and help get rid of them.

You may wonder how people are going to fillet a fish that happens to have a spiky, venomous spine. (And Whole Foods is probably asking themselves the same thing right now.) Never fear: Lad Adkins from the Reef Environmental Education Foundation is here to help.

Filleting a Lionfish

Lad Akins from REEF demonstrates how to safely fillet a lionfish. Check out the video to find out how to turn lionfish spines into skewers or toothpicks. For more information on Lionfish, please visit www.reef.org.

After you fillet it, there are unlimited options on how you can actually eat the thing. Apparently it's really good in ceviche, blackened, or even deep-fried. Diners claim that it tastes like snapper. In fact, only one restaurant in New York City sells it, and according to the chefs, demand is through the roof.

So perhaps, with Whole Foods' decision to start stocking the menace-beast at its seafood counter, along with the fact that the properly-prepared lionfish fillet is apparently delicious, we can start a food trend that actually helps the environment instead of harming it.

Source

Belize's Lionfish: Creating Demand for Invasive Species

The Wall Street Journal's video on Belize's Lionfish. Lionfish is an invasive species first sighted off Belize's coastal waters in 2008. Conservationists encourage fishermen to hunt lionfish, but creating a market for the fish's meat has proven difficult.

Learn how to cook and clean a Lion Fish in Belize

Today's Jaunt will take us to Belize and show HOW TO clean this LOCAL DISH.

Belize Boys' Trip: Lionfish Ceviche

I've always been fascinated watching our boat captain Michael and dive master Palma making lionfish Ceviche after the day's dives are done. The process is quick and the ingredients are simple but the result is always awesome. Here they are, showing us how it's done.

Invasive lionfish had no measurable effect on prey fish community structure across the Belizean Barrier Reef
Invasive lionfish are assumed to significantly affect Caribbean reef fish communities. However, evidence of lionfish effects on native reef fishes is based on uncontrolled observational studies or small-scale, unrepresentative experiments, with findings ranging from no effect to large effects on prey density and richness. Moreover, whether lionfish affect populations and communities of native reef fishes at larger, management-relevant scales is unknown. The purpose of this study was to assess the effects of lionfish on coral reef prey fish communities in a natural complex reef system. We quantified lionfish and the density, richness, and composition of native prey fishes (0-10 cm total length) at sixteen reefs along ∼250 km of the Belize Barrier Reef from 2009 to 2013. Lionfish invaded our study sites during this four-year longitudinal study, thus our sampling included fish community structure before and after our sites were invaded, i.e., we employed a modified BACI design. We found no evidence that lionfish measurably affected the density, richness, or composition of prey fishes.

Undersea robot is designed to vacuum up invasive lionfish

Wreaking environmental havoc in tropical Atlantic waters, the invasive lionfish may soon be drawn into an undersea, robotic vacuum intended to slow the spread of the venomous yet tasty species.

Fun to use with a target price of $1,000 or less, the robotic vacuum has two main components: a 25-pound, undersea remotely operated vehicle and a controller (think PlayStation). Tethered to the controller, the cylindrical vehicle, 3.5 feet long and 10 inches in diameter, is lowered into the water. Its video camera streams images to an operator in a boat or on shore, who steers the robot to make the catch.

"The robot is designed for now to collect up to 10 lionfish on each dive and does so by stunning the fish with a charge generated by two 14-inch, low-voltage electrical probes," Angle explained.

Its capacity would enable bulk sales to restaurant and grocery chains once a fleet of the devices is deployed, he said.

"We are confident that the emerging market for lionfish meat will demand a consistent and reliable supply," Angle said. "Whether this is a local, private fisherman selling their catch dock-side, or a large fishing operation selling into the existing commercial seafood supply chain, the fish will sell."

After its April debut in Bermuda, the device remains in the early stages of development, funded through a Kickstarter campaign that raised nearly $29,500, Angle said.

"We are still refining and testing the platform to ensure it can be successful in helping to reduce the population of lionfish. We have successfully stunned and captured lionfish but we need to do so on a much larger scale. Once this is complete, we will deploy of the first test fleet of robots to cull targeted populations of lionfish in the Atlantic."

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Marine Conservation in Belize part 1 - Lionfish

I had a fantastic opportunity back in March to showcase some of the work Reef Conservation International are doing on a tiny remote island in the middle of the Belize Barrier Reef - the second largest coral reef system in the world after the GBR.

This first video details what the teams are doing in an attempt to reduce the numbers of the invasive lionfish (Pterois volitans)

Lionfish, the Long View

For 10 years, since the invasive Lionfish species appeared in Belizean waters, we've been reporting on the threats and opportunities this presents.

The threat is that they feed off local reef fish which can harm the reef ecosystem, so Belize needs to reduce the population of lionfish. And that's where the opportunity comes in: Belizeans have to find wayy to consume and create using the colorful and quite tasty fish.

And that's why a national lionfish management strategy was launched today at the Coastal Zone Management Training room. Courtney Weatherburne has more on the importance of this plan.

Courtney Weatherburne reporting
Lionfish are visually mesmerizing creatures with their striped bodies and dotted fan-like fins. While these colorful fish may be appealing to look at, they aren't so pleasant to have around. They are an invasive species and are a major threat to the balance of the reef's ecosystem.

Jennifer Chapman, Blue Ventures, Belize Country Manager
"The invasive lionfish was first was officially recorded in Belize in 2008 and since then the population has really exploded. We saw the peak of the population in 2011 and it dropped off again. The reason why we should be concerned about the invasive lionfish is that it is a predatory fish and feeds off juveniles and if you look on a reef which has a very high density of invasive lionfish you could expect to see very low populations of juvenile fish species and the repercussions of that are basically you can expect to see further down the line that fish populations on the reef are lower in diversity, lower in biomass and of course the knock on effect of that is fisheries productivity."

Beverly Wade, Fisheries Administrator
"It has been proven that lionfish has the potential to reduce your biodiversity on your reefs and coastal ecosystems of up to 80 percent. That is concerning for any country like Belize where your coastal ecosystem is really central to a lot of your key economic activities."

Today a Marine Conservation Organization called Blue Ventures along with the Fisheries Department launched the first

National Lionfish Management Strategy. The strategy highlights what is being done to control the lionfish population in Belize and what additional measures can be implemented.

Jennifer Chapman, Blue Ventures, Belize Country Manager
"We have seen scuba divers, tour operators fishing associations and organizations and NGO's coming together with the fisheries department to address this issue and what we have been working on the last few years is trying to understand exactly where those efforts have been successful and also where they have been less successful and how we may be able to adapt the approach so what we did is we did these surveys with stakeholder communities and in the water and we tried to understand exactly what is going on in the system and from there we were able to develop the strategic plan and we are also going to be launching a working group which is tasked with implementing all the objectives and activities within the strategic plan."

Belize is considered a pioneer in lionfish management but there is still more work to be done to fully protect the reef.

Jennifer Chapman, Blue Ventures, Belize Country Manager
"About 78 percent of Belize's reefs currently have lionfish populations that are considered to be well managed so they are low enough that we don't think they will have a negative impact. Of course that means we have 22 percent where that is not the case and every piece of reef from north to south is important and relevant and valuable to somebody and to everybody so we want to try to expand the success from the 78 percent into that last remaining 22 percent."

"But we don't want to forget about the 78 percent, we want to keep the momentum, keep the energy going on that 78 percent so part of the work that this strategic plan says is let's not stop what we are doing we have seen that if you stop very quickly the lionfish population bounces back.:s

And you can count on that because lionfish are capable of reproduction in less than a year and they have no known predators so the lionfish management team needs all the reinforcement it can get to keep these uninvited guests from taking over.

Beverly Wade, Fisheries Administrator
"It is here to stay, there is no strategy for eradication so we have to have a strategy in place to effectively control it."

The strategy will be in effect from 2019 to 2023.

Channel 7