Pacific Predator Invades Atlantic

[ricki]

Thanks for the reports. I had heard about Nassau and NP, news to me about the Exumas. Sorry to hear about that. Makes sense they would be through the central Bahamas at least in time. Has any report of them came out of the SE Bahamas or Turks and Caicos? I heard that they are not that uncommon in Bermuda as well. Quite a few people have elected to shoot them when they are sighted.

[ricki]

Still more info ...

Re: Coming to a reef near you?

The government was supporting the theory of six individuals that were
bashed out a large aquarium, through a picture window of a home on Key
Biscayne during the storm surge (15 ft.?) of Hurricane Andrew.
Considering how wide spread they area, South Florida (I've yet to see
one here btw) to Long Island, NY over to Bermuda, across the Bahamas,
found out today they've been in the Turks & Caicos for many years* and
may have been seen in Honduras 20 years ago, I think that is
stretching things a bit.

Best guess they love our environment here, have no natural enemies to
speak of (heard a story about a small one being found in the gut of a
grouper, we can hope!) and breed like sea bunnies and they are moving
out. I also heard today about a raft of fry being seen under a matt
of sargassum off Jupiter drifting north.

I have read about the bilge water theory too which has propagated a
number of other serious invasive species. Not sure about that in this
case as some islands like the Caymans with a fair amount of shipping
traffic apparently don't have lionfish yet.

I understand below about 80 ft. they are very common from Melbourne to
points north. They range out to about 250 ft. too.

* Was talking to an UW Photographer at the Delray event today. He has
some outstanding Lionfish shots along with a lot of Pacific
compositions. His lionfish images were all taken in the Turks &
Caicos. He says he has seen lionfish munching normally out of bounds
cleaner fish too, nothing is sacred it seems.

--- In FITGraduates@yahoogroups.com, "Martin Stepanek" <mstepanek@...>
wrote:
>
> WOW!!!! This is a new one to me as well. Is there any widely
accepted theory
> how and why they are here? They are so beautiful but this is not right.
>
>
>
> Martin

[ricki]

The fellow I spoke to at the Delray event is Christopher of http://aquaexposure.com/, an underwater photographer of some skill. He has a killer close up (1/64 inch away form the domeport, maybe less) beak-on shot of a queen trigger. Anyway, he lived in the Turks and Caicos for about six years and saw a lot of lionfish and interactions. He was the one that told me about the consumption of cleaner fish normally safe from ells to cuddas to groupers and the dozen or so small fry sighted off Jupiter. Bet he has still more stories related to lionfish and other invasive species.

[ricki]

Just headed over to the Bahamas again. Looks like they are getting more organized to deal with the invasion, including ...





Unfortunately, I wasn't around to checkout the cleaning technique (careful ... remember what happens with improperly cleaned pufferfish, whoops!) or recipes. Maybe they would send them via email?

I spoke to a local who said they have found some young lionfish in the guts of a few groupers. Wow, a local predator, we can hope so.

The Nassau Guardian has a couple of articles:

If You Get Stung By A Lionfish
http://www.thenassauguardian.com/soc...5766194018.php

Asian Fish Threatens Fishing Industry
http://www.thenassauguardian.com/bix...3304726317.php

[amber]

wow... interesting post. Thanks for all the info. Us marine biology nerds disguised as kiters enjoy stuff like this...

[Danimal8199]

I was in South beach 2 summers ago and picked up some debris in the water only to find a tiny lion fish trying to hide in it. I couldn't believe what I saw so I barrowed a little net from some kids and scoped it up to take a safer look. It was fore sure a lion fish. I put it back in the water and but the sea weed back onto and sent it on its way...

[ricki]

Thanks for the SoBe story. I've heard they've been seen in Florida and are even common in deeper water off NE Florida. Despite that, I've yet to see one in SE Florida or the Keys. I understand they've been sighted off here as far back as 20 years ago. They sure are easily found in the Bahamas sad to say.
Have others seen these guys in Florida waters?

Yes, closet Marine Biologists unite! I ended up taking my career prospects on land a couple of decades ago. It sure was fun doing various coral reef, midwater and pelagic fisheries, marine geo, physical oceanography studies, UW Archaelogy and more for a while though. Great food for the mind if not the table!

[ricki]

Just came across a listing of lionfish sightings in the Atlantic. Good luck to us, eight in Little Cayman?!.

http://nas.er.usgs.gov/queries/colle...?SpeciesID=963

There is a paper related to this above database at:

http://www.aquaticinvasions.net/2009..._Schofield.pdf

[ricki]

An update on lionfish. Saw some in their native digs over in the Red Sea, but only at night. Despite looking in quite a few crevices and caves never saw any in daylight, only at night. At night they seemed to follow the diving light along. Honza with the Lighthouse Dive Center in Hurghada warned they might do that. They lap up fish that might be attracted or stunned by the light. He also said they can move at blinding speed as established by a night video clip slowed down to identify a blurred object. He indicated that in daylight they might see them in caves but near the walls. At night they range more out into the open. I only spent 9 days in the Red Sea diving in a lot of varied areas but my impression is that they are more common in the Bahamas, all be it in crevices and wrecks in the day than in the Red Sea by a good margin. Also, the Red Sea lionfish displayed a curious defensive perhaps offense mannerism. They rotate their body nose downward placing dorsal fins forward and swim in that direction. In other words, spears outward and advance. I have several video clips to process showing this, stay tuned.

Some summary comments from a discussion on Facebook:
Supposedly the cornetfish is a predator in the Pacific, not sure if they act in that role here or not. Individuals have been found in grouper guts. Still, once the lionfish grow to much size, it would be a lot for some groupers to choke down. Kent shot a couple over in Bimini to see what some nearby reef sharks might do about it. They ignored which is fairly unusual when it comes to speared fish. I've heard from folks diving off Jacksonville, FL that say they see 15 on a typical wreck dive. I understand they occur out to about 250 ft., so spearing may provide limited results. I have one report of a single juvenal being seen under a sargassum mat along the shore in Miami. If they spend part of their life cycle drifting over pelagic grass mats northward with the Florida Current/Gulfstream and if they propagated in the Bahamas and Caribbean, it might explain the distribution to date. Bermuda, northern Florida up the east coast to Long Island. The Stream peppers them along the east coast, they die off in the winter along the northern stretches like other reef fish that end up in those parts. Aside from counter current eddies on the western margin of the current, there may be little to transport lionfish to SE Florida. Then there is the extensive distribution over the Bahamian plateau down through Turks and Caicos, not sure about transport mechanisms there aside from mats drifting with prevailing winds.

Just came across a summary of lionfish in their natural habitat and in our area too;

http://www.dive-the-world.com/creatures-lionfish.php

[ricki]

The first photo of a lionfish in Broward County that I've seen. Not good.



From posted by: Pompano Dive Center
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