There are lionfish in our waters and they’re here to stay.
The orange- and black-striped aquarium fish with fleshy tentacles above its eyes and below its mouth is as striking as it is dangerous.
The first non-native marine species to establish a new home in Atlantic coastal waters isn’t a roaring problem here yet. But results of lionfish studies that began in Beaufort show the venomous but eatable fish has reached wide distribution.
The need for awareness and attention to addressing the “lionfish invasion” in the Atlantic Ocean is part of a resolution introduced in the U.S. House of Representatives earlier this month based on research that began at the Beaufort Lab of NOAA National Centers for Coastal Ocean Science.
Director David Johnson said researchers there “did almost all of the early lionfish work and are still involved in looking at the spread of the population.”
Research ecologist Paula Whitfield of the Beaufort Lab said, “We did raise the red flag on lionfish … and are now trying to determine the ecological impact to offshore communities, who are the major players.”
Local frequent sightings by area fishermen and scuba divers helped, especially in the beginning, to figure out where the lionfish are, said Whitfield. “They were first sighted offshore in North Carolina in 2000 and we started surveys in Onslow Bay in 2004. They are everywhere. Distribution is wide.”
Research scientist James Morris, like Johnson one of the few Carteret natives working there, has followed the lionfish on land and sea from the first studies and has written many scientific papers and been involved in national media video stories on the fish including several Discovery Channel specials.
Morris said the Beaufort Lab “has the longest running research program on lionfish,” which now includes “a whole research program working on biology, ecology, field observation and control and management strategy from the Caribbean to off our coast.”
Morris’ most recent information on the red lionfish (pterois volitans) and devil firefish (pterois miles) is work used to brief Rep. Donna Christensen, D-Virgin Islands, for a resolution to raise awareness of lionfish.
The fish were most likely introduced into the Atlantic in the 1980s from the U.S. aquarium trade, he said, and are now established throughout the coastal southeastern U.S., the Caribbean and Gulf of Mexico.
While as many as 30 other new species have been documented in Southern coastal waters, Whitfield is “not aware of another species on the way up here but there are definitely other species surviving from the aquarium trade off Florida. It has the climate and great environment for the pet trade and aquarium trade species. It is such a favorable location for survival. In Florida they are thinking, if it happened to lionfish, it could happen to others as well.”
One the other hand, cold winter waters off North Carolina have helped control distribution and “lionfish are not surviving winter close to shore,” she said. “We have still found them in 100 feet of water or greater, where people scuba dive and fish.”
Morris said researchers at the Beaufort Lab are “partnering with the U.S. Geological Survey in tracking information and documenting the spread of lionfish in a data base.”
Impacts
Environmental impact of the new fish species appears to be specific to what they eat, Whitfield said. “They mainly eat other fish. That’s what they prefer. Around here, they don’t often pray on other fish that are commercially valuable yet. But we have found vermillion snapper in their stomachs.”
Vermillion snapper are commercially viable and now catch-controlled, said Morris, who comes from six generations of fishermen in Sea Level, and is spawning that fish in his Beaufort lab as part of a marine aquaculture project.
Whitfield said the lionfish “basically eat whatever is in front of them — the abundance determines what they are eating — so when there are a lot of lionfish, they have to eat something and they’ll be eating other fish that are economically beneficial.”
Morris said the lionfish may live decades and reach sizes up to 19 inches and “they eat up to 56 species of fish and many invertebrate species with prey exceeding half the lionfish’s body size.”
Lionfish are considered an eatable fish but they may also live for decades in high densities and reproduce at an alarming rate by spawning over 2 million eggs per year per female, he said. Their presence is a concern for its potential impact of species including Nassau grouper and Warsaw grouper, speckled hind, striped croaker and key silverside.
Morris said experimental removals of lionfish as part of a before-and-after-control-impact studies are under way to help assess the predatory impacts on the native hardbottom community. But they can go so far out and to depths of 1,000 feet, so removal as a solution is not really feasible.
Venom
There is also concern to fishermen when the venomous fish is part of the catch in their nets, he said. “Lionfish sting symptoms include tachycardia, hypertension, hypotension, seizures, chest pain, abdominal pain, swelling, pain, and sub dermal necrosis at the sting site, and temporary paralysis to all extremities.”
Morris said the long-term health effects aren’t known but divers, fishermen and swimmers are at increased risk where lionfish reach high densities.
Their destruction of coral reefs by eating the fish that keep them clean is another concern because of its potential impact on the ecology and the tourism industry.
Commercial harvesting to control their proliferation could be a solution, said Morris, who has a cookbook that can be bought online and said they’re very tasty. Harvesting of juvenile lionfish for the aquarium trade is also a possibility.
Whatever the solution, the new invader needs study, he said. He is hoping, as the March U.S. House of Representatives resolution now referred to the Subcommittee on Fisheries, Wildlife, Oceans, and Insular Affairs, can be passed so study and development of a region-wide strategy for public awareness and management from the Gulf of Mexico to North Carolina can be established.
By Sue Book
Image courtesy of Hubpages
| < Prev | Next > |
|---|
