Fishermen’s concern that invasive lionfish are damaging the Caribbean’s reefs is justified, and the threat the predator poses to the region’s environment is on the rise, a researcher has found.
A three-year survey of 71 reefs in three regions of the Caribbean found that naturally occurring predators such as sharks and red grouper are not enough to control the spread of lionfish, researchers at the University of North Carolina said last Thursday. With natural solutions off the table, reducing lionfish populations is up to people.
“Lionfish are here to stay, and it appears that the only way to control them is by fishing them,” said John Bruno, a UNC biology professor who led the study.
Restoring the populations of lionfish predators is a worthy goal in itself, but it is unlikely to stop their spread, according to a UNC press release.
“The researchers support restoration of large-reef predators as a way to achieve better balance and biodiversity, but they are not optimistic that this would affect the burgeoning lionfish population,” the release stated.
“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, a student who worked on the study. “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.”
More optimistically, the study found that in places such as Belize, where divers make a daily effort to patrol reef sites and kill lionfish, their spread can be stopped. Similar efforts are regularly taken in the Virgin Islands by groups of volunteer divers and the Conservation and Fisheries Department
“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,” the study found.
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