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The red lionfish sports maroon and white stripes to complement its venomous spines. A native of the Indian and Pacific Oceans, the red lionfish and one of its cousins have rapidly established a new domain from Cape Hatteras to the coast of Mexico.
The lionfish gorge on small fish, mollusks and invertebrates, enough to fill out to as much as 480 grams and decimate local populations on the coral reefs they inhabit. Their arrival has caused quote "extreme disruption to native fish communities," according to the International Coral Reef Initiative, which is studying what to do about the lionfish invasion.
The lionfish are largely taking over thanks to overfishing by us humans, which has seriously diminished native grouper and snapper that would otherwise play the same role. But humans can help too, if we just learn to overfish the lionfish.
In fact, the answer to this invasive species problem may lie on the dinner table. After all, lionfish fillets are not poisonous and rather delicious, according to both the U.S. National Oceanic and Atmospheric Administration and fisherfolk who have tasted it. Per NOAA quote "we can't possibly eat too many of them."
—David Biello
[The above text is a transcript of this podcast.]
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6 Comments
Add CommentThanks for this very, very unscientific article.
Reply | Report Abuse | Link to thisLionfish are not damaging the reef, far from it, they are setting up conditions where the coral, which makes up the reef, has a chance to recover from the devastation that humans have inflicted on it.
Overfishing over decades or even centuries has created a situation that is killing coral reefs worldwide. The lionfish, while invasive, true, are starting to balance the reef and return the equilibrium back to favor coral instead of algae.
Overfishing of yet another species of fish is NOT the answer to the reef's problems. Working towards general and EFFECTIVE conservation methods may be.
The article is based on an ICRI report. Where are the references for your claims?
Reply | Report Abuse | Link to thisAre you a vegetarian, Fred?
Reply | Report Abuse | Link to thisActually I eat fish, but that is not the point.
Reply | Report Abuse | Link to thisThe ICRI report (and I assume you do not mean the International Concrete Repair Institute) merely recorded the scope of the lionfish spread east of the Americas. They used a lot of words about the effect like "might" and "could", without any regard to what would be most likely to happen, preferring to hit the panic button, hard.
If you care to do your own homework, you will find many science studies showing the negative effect of damsel fish on coral, these different damsels were released from predatory control by human overfishing or lost their preferred habitat, the coral they lived in died as a secondary or tertiary effect of human overfishing. As these fish grew in population coral died.
Also in your homework, check out the effects of the Diadema plague of 1983, causing an outbreak of macro-algae. The Diadema couldn't recover because an overpopulation of small wrasses continually wiped out the juvenile urchins. What you won't find in your research, because it seems the researchers fail to observe, is that some parrot fish also eat urchins and between these parrot fish and the wrasses, there were no urchins and lots of algae.
Also in your reading, you will find out that macro-algae causes coral decline, by crowding it out, shading it, and encouraging disease to destroy either the coral or the symbiotic Zooxanthellae.
While the release of lionfish into the Atlantic was unfortunate, the effect on coral reefs are to tilt the equilibrium back in favor of the coral by setting up conditions to allow the natural invertebrate herbivores to remove toxic algae that fish cannot and will not eat.
the report also said that there are some fish that have been almost fished out that eat the lion fish.
Reply | Report Abuse | Link to thisAllowing the reefs to recover might just be a matter of limiting fishing.
The only know predators of Red Lion fish are cornet fish, (who probably eat juvenile). What the article implies is that Red Lion fish eat the same foods as red snapper, etc, and hence if their population is not restricted by fishing, they will out compete these "valuable?" food fish. I guess the theory of NOAA is that it will help the recovery of these commercial fish if we all red lion fish to the menu. I'm not sure that this is the case, as the problem much more about over fishing than food source.
Reply | Report Abuse | Link to thisWithout adding Red Lion fish the fishery business might collapse first, allowing recovery, but if the fisherman start eating red lion fish, then they will stay on the overfished waters & will continue to take in the occasional rare red snapper along with the lion fish, thus continuing pressure on these species.