Lionfish spread map across time

[tursiops]

Primary flows, yes. There are plenty of eddies and backflows to move larvae in the opposite direction tho. Most of them are pulled north until they reach water too cold for their survival which spares Europe from eventual migrants, but some ride the opposite flowing waters caused by the Antilles

Right. You should publish your theory of Caribbean circulation.

 

[Pipehorse]

Here is a point map for the Regal Demoiselle, another invasive species, most likely came over on an oil rig towed from the Red Sea to the Gulf of Mexico. There are a couple specimens at Blue Heron Bridge, they look very similar to Brown Chromis.
Regal Demoiselle Point Map

 

[Dan G]

I do not see a key. Is each dot a single sighting, or is each dot worth multiple fish?

 

[tursiops]

I do not see a key. Is each dot a single sighting, or is each dot worth multiple fish?

First sighting for that location. Other maps show density, but not animated.
See the basic USGS site at Nonindigenous Aquatic Species.

 

[ggunn]

Only for north of Miami. The Gulf Stream doesn't circulate around the Caribbean.

Not that it makes all that much of a difference, but I think eggs or juveniles drifting in the current are a more likely mechanism for the spreading of the lionfish infestation than it would be for adult lionfish to have bridged the distance between locations where they have been seen by swimming hundreds of miles through the open ocean. Filling and dumping of water ballast tanks by cruise ships and maritime shipping could also have contributed to lionfish proliferation, I would guess.

 

[tursiops]

Not that it makes all that much of a difference, but I think eggs or juveniles drifting in the current are a more likely mechanism for the spreading of the lionfish infestation than it would be for adult lionfish to have bridged the distance between locations where they have been seen by swimming hundreds of miles through the open ocean. Filling and dumping of water ballast tanks by cruise ships and maritime shipping could also have contributed to lionfish proliferation, I would guess.

I don't think anyone (SB or elsewhere) has suggested that swimming adults are the way the infestation spread. Eggs drifting with the currents -- which might be wind-driven rather than associated with major "stable" current systems -- are the likely candidate. An adult female will release up to 12000 to 15000 eggs in each of two egg masses....every 4 days! These float at the surface and can survive for 25 days.
Ballast water is always the favored culprit, but is not likely the major cause....becasue there are no major shipping routes associated with the spreading pattern.
A final bit of evidence is that the first lionfish seen in a previously pristine area seem to be wuite small juveniles.

 

[gopbroek]

I don't think anyone (SB or elsewhere) has suggested that swimming adults are the way the infestation spread. Eggs drifting with the currents -- which might be wind-driven rather than associated with major "stable" current systems -- are the likely candidate. An adult female will release up to 12000 to 15000 eggs in each of two egg masses....every 4 days! These float at the surface and can survive for 25 days.
Ballast water is always the favored culprit, but is not likely the major cause....becasue there are no major shipping routes associated with the spreading pattern.
A final bit of evidence is that the first lionfish seen in a previously pristine area seem to be wuite small juveniles.

Last I heard, several years back, the DNA tracks back to around 7 fish in the mid to late 80's (prior to hurricane Andrew) and the first reports of sightings were in the Bahamas's.

 

[El Graduado]

Last I heard, several years back, the DNA tracks back to around 7 fish in the mid to late 80's (prior to hurricane Andrew) and the first reports of sightings were in the Bahamas's.

Can you please post a link or reference to this DNA study that can precisely pinpoint a DNA sample (or backtrack a DNA sample) to the mid-to-late-1980s? Also, could you give me a link to where you read that the first lionfish sighting in the Atlantic was in the Bahamas, instead of NOAA's official record of the first sighting being off Dania, Florida in 1985? I will update my book, The Natural History of Cozumel, if you can provide me with a link or reference that can substantiate this new information.
Thanks.

 

[tursiops]

the first reports of sightings were in the Bahamas's.

I believe this is a misreading of the literature. According to Mitochondrial control region sequence analyses indicate dispersal from the US East Coast as the source of the invasive Indo-Pacific lionfish Pterois volitans in the Bahamas - Marine Biology, the first sightings in the Bahamas were in 2004, whereas they were already well-established along the US east coast.

 

[gopbroek]

Can you please post a link or reference to this DNA study that can precisely pinpoint a DNA sample (or backtrack a DNA sample) to the mid-to-late-1980s? Also, could you give me a link to where you read that the first lionfish sighting in the Atlantic was in the Bahamas, instead of NOAA's official record of the first sighting being off Dania, Florida in 1985? I will update my book, The Natural History of Cozumel, if you can provide me with a link or reference that can substantiate this new information.
Thanks.

Here is one link discussing alternative theories on the introduction. I will continue trying to find the article I read about 5 years back tracing the DNA.

Genetics Helps Unravel Invasive Lionfish Introduction Scenarios | U.S. Geological Survey

A new USGS study finds a lack of evidence to support the widely accepted introduction scenario in which the invasive lionfish originated solely from Florida and identifies alternative introduction pathways.

www.usgs.gov