Should non-native lionfish be eliminated?

[outlawaggie]

This Yahoo article about lionfish got me to thinking. Should areas where lionfish are just starting to appear take steps to eliminate them?

What are your thoughts about non-native species moving into an area?

Venomous lionfish prowls fragile Caribbean waters - Yahoo! News

 

[drbill]

As a marine biologist, given some of the problems I've observed with non-natives I think it is very important to eliminate those that can be so dealt with before they become serious problems. Of course this is not a blanket necessity... there are some non-natives that may enter an area and not be able to reproduce due to water temperatures being below their reproductive threshold, or the absence of other necessary factors such as food.

Over the past few years we on Catalina have observed a highly invasive Asian alga (Sargassum filicinum) enter our waters and spread like wildfire, totally out-competing native forms for substrate and light. It is beyond control after just a few years and is having serious impacts on our native species.

 

[dpbishop]

Dr. Bill,

Maybe you could organize some Lionfish hunting safaris. Get some spear fisherman to pay your way to the Caribbean.

 

[cdreamer]

Lionfish in the Atlantic have been multiplying now for 8 years, killing them now is useless.

 

[BTravlin]

I don't know that it's useless just yet. Probably a big challenge but give some hunters the go ahead with open season and you might be surprised.

I wonder what the best way to eliminate them would be?

 

[livewire]

On the question of "what's the best way to eliminate them?" This is always a tough one. In examples around the world, biologists have introduced natural predators to control the population of a non-native species, often times only to upset the environmental balance in a different way. Fortunately they don't have to do that here, as the grouper could probably keep them under control, if only their numbers were larger! Let's hope that some of the marine reserves will help their population. Hunting is probably the next best hope, but unfortunately lion fish can go much deeper than recreational spearfishermen or scuba divers. Doing tech dives just to hunt lion fish probably isn't going to get many takers, so the lion fish have a safe haven by staying deep.

Too bad you can't trap 'em like we do everything else... bears, rats, mice, etc!

On the question of "Should they be eliminated?" I say absolutely. We as humans made a mistake by introducing them into the non-native environment, that mistake is going to have a massive impact, we should absolutely try to correct that mistake if possible.

 

[cruiser]

A friend just returned from a week long liveaboard trip to the Bahamas and said he saw plenty of lionfish. On one 8 x 8 foot coral head, he counted 11 of them.

 

[Doubler]

The horse is already out of the barn on this one. Hunting them alone will not eliminate them. There needs to be a moritorium on fishing grouper for the next ten years. Other than that enjoy the Lionfish on all your dives.

 

[cdreamer]

It is a fact that when you see healthy grouper populations, you see less
lions. In the Red Sea the coronetfish is another predator of theirs. This situation could have been caused by a natural disaster like say hurricane Katrina. Their aquarium was pretty much wiped out. Ballast water is another way they could have come in. To blame people for introducing them is unfounded. DNA evidence on lionfish currently in the Atlantic have linked
all lionfish to 4 individuals. Hunting them is POINTLESS! In this case, nature will balance itself as it always does and remember people - it really is just one big ocean.

 

[Jim Lapenta]

They are here. How they got here is not the point. What is, is that we in some way have added to or enhanced the cycle of their evolution. By introducing them into new territory we have perhaps started them on the path to a new species. Not necessarily a bad thing unless they start growing to 12-15 feet and look at us as food! Species come and go for various reasons. Naural disasters, changing climate, changing food supplies, predation etc. Like it or not we are part of the cycle. Who's to say that what we do is bad or not part of a greater plan we do not understand. Nature will even it out. Look at it this way. Some say polar bears are dying out. Maybe the lionfish is taking their place. One dies out another begins. When we are all shook off into space what will take our place? Something will, you can bet on it. Maybe a hybrid walking lionsnakehead fish. Or maybe one of the alien species that is watching us now just waiting for us to self destruct. Anyway, hopefully I'll be long gone and won't care.