The Lionfish Problem: What can we do?

I think lionfish are very interesting. As a dive master, their funny little creatures, because divers I would take out in Honduras LOVE them. They're cool looking: they have lots of colour, cool fins, they move slow so you can get close.

But as a biologist I think they're just awful. But okay, they are cool looking:

Invasive lionfish in the southeastern Atlantic are thought to originate from Florida, from aquaria dumping and unintentional release during a hurricane in 1992

In this time, lionfish have spread like wildfire in the southern US and central america. For example, they have depleted the juvenile reef fish populations off the coast of Honduras by almost 80%. They have no natural predators in the areas they have invaded, and readily outcompete the native fish populations. They are NASTY! In the past decade, they have spread like wild fish up and down the east coast of North America and Central America:

This map is from a study in 2010, showing all the areas where invasive lionfish have been spotted. I'm sure there would be WAY more red dots now.

They're also hard on the tourism industry. lionfish, while non-lethal, have extremely PAINFUL stings. Not like, take some Tylenol painful, more like i-have-to-stick-my-hand-on-a-boat-engine-to-get-rid-of-this-pain painful! (Which my dive instructor actually did! The only way to denature the venom from a lion fish sting is with extreme heat - even then, I have heard the pain lasts for hours and has been explained as some of the worst pain a person can experience).

There are eradication efforts in place to attempt to stop the spread of this species; for example, the area I worked in Roatan, Honduras, had something their own lionfish program in place (read more here) where you were able to do a spearfishing course, and for 50 dollars they taught you how to use a spear (safely!) and you could go on about your day and help eradicate invasive species!

(This one was taken after we got our licenses :) )

There's also a lot more promotion to use lionfish as a food source... it's a white fish, and as long as you are careful of the spines (They still hurt when they're dead!) they're a great meal... it's a great (and free!) meal.

We will most likely never full eradicate the lionfish that have been released into the southern atlantic, but through public outreach and education we can help make sure this doesn't happen with other non-native species.