Lionfish: A Nasty Surprise Visitor |

Lionfish: A Nasty Surprise Visitor

Lionfish are venomous, fast-reproducing fish that have spread along the eastern Atlantic coast and Gulf of Mexico, and pose a major threat to Florida’s native species and ecosystems. They are native to the warm waters of the South Pacific and Indian Oceans and were first detected along Florida coasts in the mid-1980s, but their numbers have increased dramatically in the past 15 years. Beautiful and dangerous, lionfish are popular with people who keep home aquariums, so it is likely that the cause for the incursion is from people who had a hard time with them and released them into local waterways.

Lionfish are voracious predators, consuming more than 70 different species of fish and crustaceans. In areas with large numbers of lionfish, the native fish populations have been destroyed by up to 90%.

Lionfish populations do considerable damage to the ecosystems they invade, particularly coral reefs. They have no natural predators in these areas, so what can be done?

Some areas have started holding lionfish “derbies.”

A lionfish derby is a competition to collect and remove as many lionfish as possible in one day. Teams collect lionfish by netting or spearing, usually while SCUBA diving (free diving or snorkeling are less common options). Teams begin competing at sunrise and are required to bring their catch to the scoring station by a specified time. Prizes are awarded for teams catching the most, biggest, and smallest lionfish.

In the first ever lionfish derby in 2009, participants removed 1,408 lionfish from Green Turtle Cay, Bahamas. Since then, more than 26,000 lionfish have been removed at REEF Derbies. The caught fish provide considerable data to scientists, but they’re also cooked by local chefs for the public to get a taste of. In the battle against invasive species, we’re making progress, and getting dinner out of it too!

Sources:

Curriculum Reference Links

Biological World / Sustainability / 10: Students should be able to evaluate how humans can successfully conserve ecological biodiversity and contribute to global food production; appreciate the benefits that people obtain from ecosystems

10 Fun Facts: The Hab

1. Aquarius is the the world’s only permanent undersea research station.

2. Most missions last about two or three weeks.

3. Fabien Cousteau, grandson of Jacques Cousteau, beat his grandfather’s record month-long underwater expedition by spending 31 days on the Aquarius Reef Base in 2014.

4. The lab is used by NASA, the US Navy, and researchers and educators from around the globe for training and research.

5. The internet connection is better in the Hab than at many places above the water.

6. You have to swim underneath the facility in order to enter it.

7. Crew members are called aquanauts (NOT aquaNUTS!)

8. In 1994, a crew of scientists and divers had to evacuate Aquarius and climb up a rescue line to the surface in 15-foot seas after one of the habitat’s generators caught fire.

9. Aquarius was featured in the comic strip Sherman’s Lagoon in 2012.

10. The Hab was originally built in Texas.

10 Fun Facts: Coral

1. Reefs usually grow up on the east shore of land masses.

2. Parts of a coral reef can be harvested to make medications to treat cancers and other illnesses.

3. A coral reef isn’t a single organism; it’s actually a community of life that lives and thrives in one location.

4. Only about one percent of the world’s oceans contain coral reefs. That’s about the size of France.

5. Coral reefs are the largest biological structures on earth.

6. Corals are related to jellyfish and anemones.

7. There are over 2,500 species of corals. About 1,000 are the hard corals that build coral reefs.

8. Reefs grow where there are stronger wave patterns and currents to deliver food and nutrients.

9. The Great Barrier Reef is 500,000 years old.

10. Most coral reefs grow just about two centimeters per year.

10. Most coral reefs grow just about two centimeters per year.

10 Fun Facts: Invasive Species

1. To be considered invasive, a species must adapt to a new area easily. It must reproduce quickly. It must harm property, the economy, or the native plants and animals of the region.

2. Some invasive species are introduced accidentally, but others are brought deliberately.

3. Ship ballast water transports between 3,000 and 7,000 foreign species daily around the globe.

4. The total loss to the world economy as a result of invasive non-native species has been estimated at 5% of annual production

5. Invasive species have contributed to 40% of the animal extinctions that have occurred in the last 400 years.

6. Rodents are some of the worst invasive species.

7. There are an estimated 50,000 wild ring-necked parakeets in parks across London and southeast England.

8. Black and Norway rats annually consume stored grains and destroy other property valued over $19 billion.

9. Northern Pacific seastars reproduce very quickly. In one area where they were introduced, their population reached an estimated 12 million seastars in just two years.

10. Starlings were introduced to New York in the late 1800s, as part of an attempt to bring animals that were mentioned in Shakespeare‘s work to America.

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