Lionfish seem to be in the news every day and iNews Cayman has had at least a lionfish story almost weekly for months.

The reason is that lionfish are causing so much damage to not only Cayman waters but the whole of the Caribbean.

We make no apology for publishing more articles on this terrible invasive predator.

Invasive lionfish devour native species

From KpopSrarz

Invasive Lionfish Devour Native Species As Population Explodes In Caribbean; Attack May Need Human Intervention

LIONFISH CANNOT BE STOPPED FROM THEIR INVASIVE CONSUMPTION IN THE CARIBBEAN AND THE GULF OF MEXICO, RESEARCHERS REPORT.

Lionfish cannot be stopped from their invasive consumption in the Caribbean and the Gulf of Mexico, researchers report.

The voracious lionfish is an invasive species and predators have been unable to curb the lionfish’s impact on smaller fish.

Lionfish are native to the Indo-Pacific region and have invaded both Caribbean and Atlantic waters in the Gulf of Mexico, seemingly unceasingly. Local fish populations are threatened and predators don’t seem to affect the lionfish.

“When I began diving 10 years ago, lionfish were a rare and mysterious species seen deep within coral crevices in the Pacific Ocean,” said Serena Hackerott, lead study author University of North Carolina graduate student. “They can now been seen across the Caribbean, hovering above the reefs throughout the day and gathering in groups of up to ten or more on a single coral head.”

Green, another researcher, was shocked to find the amount of lionfish they did on the dive. “We expected some populations of lionfish at that depth, but their numbers and size were a surprise.

She added, “This was kind of an ‘Ah hah!’ moment. It was immediately clear that this is a new frontier in the lionfish crisis, and that something is going to have to be done about it. Seeing it up-close really brought home the nature of the problem.”

Lionfish are popular aquarium pets thanks to their flowing fins and distinctive patterns. This may have caused the lionfish explosion. Scientists think it’s likely that someone dumped aquarium water into the ocean, thus releasing it into the wild.

Native predators, such as sharks and groupers, haven’t stopped the red lionfish from spreading throughout the Carribean. Human intervention may be needed.

Lionfish have been known to reduce native fish populations by as much as 80 percent. Their population has exploded, and the lionfish themselves hae gotten much bigger.

In addition, the loss of smaller fish may pave the road for loss of seaweed and disruption of the ecosystem.

For more on this story go to:

http://www.kpopstarz.com/articles/34334/20130712/lionfish-invasive-attack-caribbean.htm

Related story:

Sharks no match for invasive lionfish

By Jeanna Bryner, Managing Editor, Live Science

The eye-catching red lionfish is eating its way through Caribbean reefs, and nothing, not even a toothy shark, seems able to stop the voracious fish, a new study finds.

“Lionfish are here to stay, and it appears that the only way to control them is by fishing them,” said researcher John Bruno, professor of biology at the University of North Carolina at Chapel Hill.

The research, detailed online July 11 in the journal PLOS ONE, focused on the effect of natural predators, such as sharks and groupers, on the population of two species of red lionfish.

The thought was that these predators could keep the invasive lionfish species in check by out-competing them for food or by directly eating the fish, which are covered in venomous spikes.

Result? The red lionfish, which sport striking rust-colored lines on their bodies and a fan of soft, waving fins, seem to pay no attention to such predators. “Our results suggest that interactions with native predators do not influence the colonization or post-establishment population density of invasive lionfish on Caribbean reefs,” Bruno and his colleagues write.

Lionfish, native to the tropical regions of the Pacific Ocean, have made big splashes in the news recently, as they invade “foreign” seas, including parts of the Atlantic Ocean and the Caribbean. Humans first introduced them to the Atlantic — their good looks make them popular aquarium fish. In their new homes, they have no real predators, a fact strengthened by the new study.

“When I began diving 10 years ago, lionfish were a rare and mysterious species seen deep within coral crevices in the Pacific Ocean,” said study lead author Serena Hackerott, a master’s student in marine sciences at UNC. “They can now been seen across the Caribbean, hovering above the reefs throughout the day and gathering in groups of up to ten or more on a single coral head.”

To keep the lionfish from decimating reef fish, in Florida and the Bahamas, authorities have even organized fishing derbies.

In the new study, the researchers found lionfish numbers were lower in reefs where managers removed the lionfish daily. And while the researchers support restoration of large-reef predators to keep the invasive lionfish in check, they aren’t optimistic about the outcome.

“Active and direct management, perhaps in the form of sustained culling, appears to be essential to curbing local lionfish abundance and efforts to promote such activities should be encouraged,” they wrote in the PLOS ONE paper.

For more on this story go to:

http://www.livescience.com/38142-lionfish-invade-caribbean-reefs.html