Lindsey Maschler Week 5: The Lionfish Crisis

     Lionfish in our oceans have been a problem since the first spotting of them in 1985, and in the early 2000s, they were first documented as established. They are originally from Indonesia, but because of people who own lionfish, as well as aquariums, they are now in our South Florida waters, mainly the Florida Keys. The owners and aquariums will have lionfish in their habitats because they are honestly super pretty and interesting fish, and when they do not want them anymore, they release them into the ocean. Since they release them in the ocean, they are thinking they are doing a good thing, but in reality, they are releasing them into waters they are not welcome or used to. 

Since the invasive lionfish are not originally from here, it disrupts the entire flow of the underwater environment. The food chain gets messed up because the lionfish are eating the baby fish, which is a problem for a couple of reasons. First, it does not give a chance for the babies to grow up and evolve, and they are also eating someone else’s food. Down in Florida, they can also eat about one or two fish per minute, which makes their stomachs expand 30 times their size. However, if they were where they belong, they would not be eating nearly as much as that. This is disrupting the food chain because now you have so much less fish with the lion being here. However, on the flip side, the big guys on the top of the food chain won’t eat the lionfish, because they are a strange species to them, since, again, they are not from here. 

In addition to the disturbance of the food chain, you also now have a problem with the space. Lionfish in general are not very active fish and like to stay in the same spot. They are taking up the native fish’s habitat on the reef, and won’t leave, leaving the native fish homeless. 

Some ways to help this problem is to participate in lionfish derbies, where you have a big competition to see who can catch the biggest lionfish, the smallest, the most, and so many more competitions. You can also get certified to spear them, cook them, and eat them since they taste just like a white flaky fish, and simply just make people aware of what is happening. No one wants to get rid of them since they are not bad fish, they are just in a bad habitat. 


This lionfish issue is something that I have known about and been passionate about for a couple of years now. In my opinion, they get a bad reputation for being an invasive, venomous species, but it would be a lot better if they were not invading our waters.  What do you guys think about this? Should we keep working as hard to get rid of them?


https://slate.com/technology/2013/07/lionfish-invasion-the-invasive-fish-are-eating-so-many-native-species-that-theyre-obese.html#:~:text=Though%20lionfish%20can%20go%20weeks,to%20accommodate%20lots%20of%20food.

Comments

  1. AnonymousOct 21, 2021, 4:39:00 PM

    I think that invasive species has been a difficult issue for Florida for a long time. We have iguanas and cobras and many other animals that shouldn't be here and mess with habitats and native species. While I don't think killing them is good, there isn't really much of an option because many have repopulated so much and now it isn't as simple to just catch them and return them.

    ReplyDelete
  2. Michael HakimOct 26, 2021, 9:55:00 AM

    This is something that I know quite a lot about as well. I have seen videos online of people training predators like barracudas and sharks to eat lionfish, which is great news. I think we should continue to try to get rid of them.

    ReplyDelete

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