James V. “Jim” Hart is working on a public service announcement filmed in the Cayman Islands to alert the public about the threat lionfish fish pose.

Hart was born 1960 in Fort Worth, Texas and is an American screenwriter and author. His credits include Hook (1991) (screenplay), Bram Stoker’s Dracula (1992) (screenplay), Frankenstein (1994) (story), Muppet Treasure Island (1996) (screenplay), Contact (1997) (screenplay), Tuck Everlasting (2002) (screenplay),

Lara Croft Tomb Raider: The Cradle of Life (2003) (story), Sahara (2005) (screenplay), August Rush (2007) (screenplay), and Epic (2013) (screenplay).

Lionfish are voracious predators and are taking the already threatened Caribbean reefs by storm. Lionfish are non-selective feeders, and with virtually no natural enemies in the tropical western Atlantic they’ve invited themselves to an all you can eat seafood buffet. Lionfish have been observed consuming 20 small fish in a 30-minute period and prey up to 2/3rd of their own length. Impressively, their stomachs can expand up to 30 times their normal size after a meal. It has been determined that a single lionfish can reduce juvenile fish populations by 79% in just 5 weeks.

Samples of lionfish stomach contents in the western Atlantic have shown that they consume more than 50 different species, many of which are overfished and diminished to already critical levels (Gupta, 2009). Given this extreme rate of feeding lionfish are out-competing native predators for their food sources, as well as reducing fish populations through direct predation.

Hart’s film is aimed at encouraging people to catch and eat lionfish.

Along with Stacy Frank, Hart set up Lionfish University to try to connect efforts throughout the Caribbean and other areas affected by lionfish that have appeared throughout the region, along the east coast of America and as far south as Venezuela.

The pair recently filmed footage of lionfish culls in Little Cayman and Grand Cayman for the announcement.

From Lionfish University website:

New Research Report From Central Caribbean Marine Institute (CCMI) Shows Sustained Culling Of Lionfish Works To Protect The Reef Systems And Manages The Levels Of Infestation

The lionfish’s day of reckoning may be at hand, however a modest reckoning it may be. These beautiful voracious feeders, with a prodigious productive rate of up to thirty-thousand eggs every four days, and no natural predators, are an acknowledged threat to every aspect of life in the small island nations throughout the Caribbean.

Here in the Cayman Islands, these reef-killer fish are under siege, and the results are telling. A research report entitled, “Coping with the Lionfish Invasion: Can Targeted Removals Yield Beneficial Effects?” from the Central Caribbean Marine Institute (CCMI) located in Little Cayman, and the University of Florida, published on July 12th of this year, clearly concludes that mulitple culling efforts at one site reduces the lionfish population significantly. Divers on the island will tell you that they are finding fewer lionfish in Bloody Bay Marine Park thanks to the community effort. The report appearing in Reviews in Fisheries Science (Vol 20, issue 4) states that “The lionfish removal efforts on Little Cayman provide, for the first time, compelling evidence that targeted removals can and do reduce numbers of lionfish….”

In other words, CULLING WORKS!

The report goes on to support even more encouraging potential outcomes; “Such a shift in predation pressure would likely benefit economically and ecologically important reef fishes, including juveniles of the endangered Nassau grouper and other groupers, along with herbivores such as parrotfishes, surgeonfishes, and damselfishes.” This is promising news to the local inhabitants, resort owners, and dive operators of Little Cayman who have been fighting the infestation of these invaders through regular organized vigilante “culls” since this grassrootssocial movement to control the lionfish began to build momentum in January 2011.A group of community leaders including Bill Christoffers: owner of Conch Club Divers and member of the Marine Conservation Board, Marc Pothier: Manager of Paradise Villas and the Hungry Iguana, Jason Belport: Manager of Little Cayman Beach Resort, Neil van Niekerk: Manager of the Southern Cross Club and President of the Sister Islands Tourism Association (SITA), Gay Morse: Manager of Pirate’s Point resort, Bob Morse: Dive instructor at Pirate’s Point resort, Peter Hillenbrand: Owner of Southern Cross Club and Chairman of CCMI, as well as CCMI Research staff including Savanna Barry and Morgan Edwards (from the University of Florida and co-authors of the report) and Katie Lohr, formed weekly culls by early 2011 to hunt lionfish. Each dive operation on Little Cayman alternates in providing a dive boat once a week for volunteers, which is restricted to dive masters and instructors for safety and efficiency.

Lionfish University are a group of divers dedicated to the preservation of our ocean’s reefs and native fish populations which are threatened by the Lionfish invasion in the Caribbean. They have launched this website: http://lionfishu.com/index.php/about-lionfishu as a grass roots effort to share information and resources relating to the infestation of this invasive species.  Their goal is that through community efforts like LionfishU.com they can raise the awareness of the global community to the importance of maintaining this fragile ecosystem the Lionfish continue to threaten .Please share your lionfish stories, photos, videos, and resources, as well as your suggestions for other ideas you would like to see us add to LionfishU.com