Lionfish Awareness and Elimination

[b-dog]

If you feel that eating lionfish will solve the problem then that is fine. But I just think you really do not need to do anything to the reef ecosystem other than to leave it alone and conserve the environment. In some studies the lionfish eat up to 80% of the fish on the coral reef and that may sound bad but it still leaves 20% to reproduce. It only takes a few fertile adults to repopulate themselves because fish produce so many offspring. But this is where evolution comes in and those fish that were able to avoid the lionfish will pass on their traits to the next generation and the young will be able to avoid the lionfish as well. The lionfish provides strong selection pressure but this is quickly overcome by the fecundity of the fish. Also, if lionfish become numerous then groupers and snappers will start to hunt them as food and those groupers and snappers that are better able to catch and eat lionfish will pass on their traits to their young and their young will also have those traits. I think that there will be a small window where the native are overwhelmed by the lionfish but they will quickly adapt through natural selection.

 

[DazedAndConfuzed]

unfortunately, we humans ate up most of the groupers and snappers that are large enough to eat lionfish. So we have to continually eat ourselves out of this problem. Maybe eat up all the fish the lionfish eats so they would swim back to the pacific.

 

[Guba]

This just in...

An article in the October issue of Dive Training magazine details how researchers in the Bahamas have determined that areas with healthy populations of large grouper (read that "protected areas") have significantly fewer numbers of lionfish than areas with depressed grouper populations. I think that most of intuitively knew this might be the case. However, the observers noted that large populations of grouper did not necessarily prevent lionfish from moving in. Rather, he grouper seem to have an effect on the observed numbers of lionfish. It was also noted that lionfish were found in the stomachs of caught grouper.

In my estimation, this is directly in line with what many of us here on the boards have surmised...that the key to controlling lionfish populations is not in removing a relatively small number of them through human predation, although that can have a beneficial effect in small areas over short spans of time. Instead, efforts to protect significant swaths of marine environments (such as well regulated MPA's) offer the brightest hope by providing natural mid-level predator populations the latitude to rebound and re-establish healthy numbers.

Of course, more study is needed in this area. A single report is by no means conclusive.

 

[Fred R.]

I've posted part three of my open ended series for you;

Lionfish Impact III-We've Got Crabs! - YouTube

BTW-it answers the above question "What's eating the algae?"

(if you haven't seen my other two videos on the subject
Lionfish Imact, Part II, They are not so evil after all - YouTube
Fredgbscuba's Channel - YouTube

 

[danvolker]

Fred, this is an excellent video to show the key missing issue---the trophic downgrading article by estes did a good job of explaining why the decimation of shark populations would throw off balances severely below it, allowing issues like a lionfish invasion to occur, or the algae issue to form, but did not show the key herbivores related to the worst part of the problem...You nailed it with this!!! I can't copy the estes pdf to SB, but here is a link where you can read essential aspects about it Institute for Ocean Conservation Science

 

[Hank49]

Thank you Fred R. I finally have a fast connection here and can watch your videos.

 

[b-dog]

I am thinking that maybe all of the hysteria about the lionfish invasion is funded by the tourist industry. They bring all sorts of attention to to tourist divers eager to try to solve the lionfish problem by spearing them and eating them for dinner. The tourists spend money in hopes to save the planet while the diving industry pockets their money. The Caribbean is no where near as good for SCUBA diving as the Indo-pacific so maybe with all of the coverage about the lionfish invading the Caribbean then tourists will go to a Caribbean resort instead of going to Asia.

 

[Overshoot]

[h=1]Using ROVs to control lionfish populations? [/h]Sounds perfect for the video game generation.

Using ROVs to control lionfish populations? ? Advanced Aquarist | Aquarist Magazine and Blog

 

[FM1520]

does anyone know if there has been any Lionfish sightings off the coast of southern CA or Mexico?

 

[billt4sf]

A study released on lionfish management concluded that 27 percent of the species would need to be removed monthly to reduce the population- that is quite a number! but I also think that every little bit counts.

Congrats on the course and I hope it helps.

I even more hope that natural evolution will ultimately control the problem. I am no population biologist, but it stands to reason that if lionfish decimate 85% (someone said) of the native fishes in a reef, pretty soon the lionfish population should crash. And the next generation of native fishes may be more prone to interpret lionfish as predators. One may hope that the problem will be solved in that way. Does anyone *know* if that is a reasonable expectation?

A second possibility may be for the authorities in Bonaire to train divers about lionfish control as part of their check-out mini-course which (apparently) one must do before diving Bonaire. We''ll be there in 3 weeks!

- Bill

---------- Post added June 11th, 2013 at 05:58 PM ----------

If you feel that eating lionfish will solve the problem then that is fine. But I just think you really do not need to do anything to the reef ecosystem other than to leave it alone and conserve the environment. In some studies the lionfish eat up to 80% of the fish on the coral reef and that may sound bad but it still leaves 20% to reproduce. It only takes a few fertile adults to repopulate themselves because fish produce so many offspring. But this is where evolution comes in and those fish that were able to avoid the lionfish will pass on their traits to the next generation and the young will be able to avoid the lionfish as well. The lionfish provides strong selection pressure but this is quickly overcome by the fecundity of the fish. Also, if lionfish become numerous then groupers and snappers will start to hunt them as food and those groupers and snappers that are better able to catch and eat lionfish will pass on their traits to their young and their young will also have those traits. I think that there will be a small window where the native are overwhelmed by the lionfish but they will quickly adapt through natural selection.

We hope!