The Lionfish

One of the most impressive looking fish in my diving here was the Lionfish. Sadly, he is not wanted. Native to the Western Pacific, the Lionfish appears to have arrived in the Western Atlantic and Carribean as a result of hurricanes and tank releases in the early 1990's. Their impact is simply disastrous.

"Protected by venomous spines, lionfish are voracious and effective predators. When hunting, they herd and corner their prey using their pectoral fins, then quickly strike and swallow their prey whole. With few known natural predators, the lionfish poses a major threat to coral reef ecosystems in the Caribbean region by decreasing survival of a wide range of native reef animals via both predation and competition. While native grouper may prey on lionfish, they have been overfished and therefore unlikely to significantly reduce the effects of invasive lionfish on coral reef communities." (http://www.oar.noaa.gov/spotlite/archive/2009/articles/lionfish_invasion.html)

On one dive over on the north side of Utila last week (where people don't often go and haven't been for a while) we saw well over a dozen lionfish but unfortunately did not have the spear with us that day. Hunting here is very controlled, each spear requires a license and the only fish you are allowed to spear is the lionfish. Even then, the spear owner is very particular with who they give permission to.

There are so many beautiful fish here that deserve protecting so it would be good to see regular spearing trips to eliminate the population here.