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"The Wetter The Better" save lionfish from death
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alohagal
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Hope DAN doesn't mind:
Alert Diver Article
A Rare Sighting: Lionfish Found in Rhode Island Waters
January / February 2007 Issue
By: Bob Michelson
Editor's note: In the last issue, Northeast diver and photographer Bob Michelson broke the story of a first-ever documented New England sighting of the red lionfish. The full story unwinds here, with more detail.
When 15-year-old Chris Benoit went diving with his uncle, Charles Benoit, on Sept. 17, 2006, he hoped to find something special: tiny tropical fish swept up the East Coast by the Gulf Stream and deposited along the shores of Rhode Island. He hadn't counted on making the discovery of a lifetime.
While conducting a late afternoon dive during the New England Aquarium Dive Club's annual tropical fish hunt, the younger Benoit followed a school of small fish.
"Suddenly this weird-looking fish just swam right in front of my face," he said. He had discovered a juvenile red lionfish. With gloved hands, Chris Benoit captured the three-inch-long (7.62 cm) fish and showed it to his uncle. Charles Benoit realized this was not native to New England and was a new species invasive to the region. "I knew we had to bring this back to shore to prove we had found this fish; it was too important to just let it go," Charles Benoit said.
Red lionfish (Pterois volitans) are native to the Indo-Pacific Ocean. Paula Whitfield, scientist with the National Oceanic and Atmospheric Administration's (NOAA) Beaufort Lab in North Carolina, said this specimen is the first documented case of a red lionfish as far north as New England along the East Coast of the United States.
"There have been other sightings this summer and fall off Rhode Island, but this is the first documented case with photos and a live specimen," she said.
The juvenile red lionfish captured by Chris Benoit is now on display at the Seacoast Science Center in Rye, N.H. Steven Engstrom, aquarist at the Science Center, reports that this fish is thriving and eating well on a diet comprised of amphipods and tiny green crabs.
Little is known about the life history of red lionfish. George H. Burgess, ichthyologist and director of the Florida Program for Shark Research, Florida Museum of Natural History at the University of Florida, confirms that no studies have been conducted about their life history. "Right now as scientists we are trying to track where these fish are found and in what abundance," he said.
Burgess speculated that the juvenile seen off Rhode Island was spawned earlier this year, probably off North Carolina in June or July - this Rhode Island fish was probably three months old at the time it was sighted.
Whitfield said that since Rhode Island is so close to Long Island, it wasn't much of a surprise to find a lionfish in New England. Since so many juveniles have shown up off New York and now New England, some kind of a current pattern in the Gulf Stream - a consistent Gulf Stream eddy, or current - must bring these fish into this area, she said.
"We are looking at the winter temperatures in their southern limit - Australia, for example" she said. "Accordingly, it gets down to about 19 degrees Celsius, or 66 degrees Fahrenheit. We found in a lab that they did not die until the water reached 50 degrees Fahrenheit.
"So little is known about them in their natural environment," she added. "They can probably tolerate temps down to 50 degrees Fahrenheit. However, they probably cannot over-winter in New England and will perish."
Whitfield said many unanswered questions remain about the biology of this species; mainly, what are they eating and how do they impact the ecosystem?
"And we do not know much about their reproduction, either," she said. "We have no idea of the total population size of the red lionfish in the Atlantic. We have data that show that the numbers and density of this species appear to have doubled from what was documented in 2004."
Whitfield's lab in North Carolina conducted a 15-year study of changes in water temperature off the N.C. coast, looking especially at temperatures at the bottom during the winter. "We found that from 1975 to 1990, the study area saw an increase of water temperature of 1 degree Celsius," she said. "This is a dispersal of a fish that have a free-floating pelagic stage. If waters continue to warm in the Northeast, it may increase the survivability of this species northward up the coast."
For more information about the lionfish:
www.flmnh.ufl.edu/fish
http://coastalscience.noaa.gov/documents/factsheet_lionfish.pdf
http://oceanservice.noaa.gov/education/stories/lionfish/welcome.html
www.seacoastsciencecenter.org
www.neadc.org
Lionfish at a Glance
Mid-1990s
Red lionfish first observed and photographed off West Palm Beach Inlet, Fla. Most likely cause was the release from private aquarium.
2000
Lionfish found off North Carolina in two different locations on wrecks 60 miles (96.5 km) apart. Very small numbers seen over large geographic area. First sightings off South Carolina and Georgia.
2001
Lionfish went from two wrecks to seven locations off North Carolina. First juveniles seen off Long Island, N.Y., and off Bermuda.
2004-05
First verified reports of lionfish in Bahamas.
2006
First verified report of juvenile lionfish off New England at Jamestown, R.I.
- By Bob Michelson, from an interview with Paula Whitfield, fisheries biologist at NOAA's Center for Coastal Fisheries and Habitat Research in Beaufort, N.C.
NOTE: Please report all lionfish sightings and collections to Paula Whitfield at the NOAA Beaufort Laboratory at paula.whitfield@noaa.gov or call +1 252-728-8714.
Alert Diver Article
A Rare Sighting: Lionfish Found in Rhode Island Waters
January / February 2007 Issue
By: Bob Michelson
Editor's note: In the last issue, Northeast diver and photographer Bob Michelson broke the story of a first-ever documented New England sighting of the red lionfish. The full story unwinds here, with more detail.
When 15-year-old Chris Benoit went diving with his uncle, Charles Benoit, on Sept. 17, 2006, he hoped to find something special: tiny tropical fish swept up the East Coast by the Gulf Stream and deposited along the shores of Rhode Island. He hadn't counted on making the discovery of a lifetime.
While conducting a late afternoon dive during the New England Aquarium Dive Club's annual tropical fish hunt, the younger Benoit followed a school of small fish.
"Suddenly this weird-looking fish just swam right in front of my face," he said. He had discovered a juvenile red lionfish. With gloved hands, Chris Benoit captured the three-inch-long (7.62 cm) fish and showed it to his uncle. Charles Benoit realized this was not native to New England and was a new species invasive to the region. "I knew we had to bring this back to shore to prove we had found this fish; it was too important to just let it go," Charles Benoit said.
Red lionfish (Pterois volitans) are native to the Indo-Pacific Ocean. Paula Whitfield, scientist with the National Oceanic and Atmospheric Administration's (NOAA) Beaufort Lab in North Carolina, said this specimen is the first documented case of a red lionfish as far north as New England along the East Coast of the United States.
"There have been other sightings this summer and fall off Rhode Island, but this is the first documented case with photos and a live specimen," she said.
The juvenile red lionfish captured by Chris Benoit is now on display at the Seacoast Science Center in Rye, N.H. Steven Engstrom, aquarist at the Science Center, reports that this fish is thriving and eating well on a diet comprised of amphipods and tiny green crabs.
Little is known about the life history of red lionfish. George H. Burgess, ichthyologist and director of the Florida Program for Shark Research, Florida Museum of Natural History at the University of Florida, confirms that no studies have been conducted about their life history. "Right now as scientists we are trying to track where these fish are found and in what abundance," he said.
Burgess speculated that the juvenile seen off Rhode Island was spawned earlier this year, probably off North Carolina in June or July - this Rhode Island fish was probably three months old at the time it was sighted.
Whitfield said that since Rhode Island is so close to Long Island, it wasn't much of a surprise to find a lionfish in New England. Since so many juveniles have shown up off New York and now New England, some kind of a current pattern in the Gulf Stream - a consistent Gulf Stream eddy, or current - must bring these fish into this area, she said.
"We are looking at the winter temperatures in their southern limit - Australia, for example" she said. "Accordingly, it gets down to about 19 degrees Celsius, or 66 degrees Fahrenheit. We found in a lab that they did not die until the water reached 50 degrees Fahrenheit.
"So little is known about them in their natural environment," she added. "They can probably tolerate temps down to 50 degrees Fahrenheit. However, they probably cannot over-winter in New England and will perish."
Whitfield said many unanswered questions remain about the biology of this species; mainly, what are they eating and how do they impact the ecosystem?
"And we do not know much about their reproduction, either," she said. "We have no idea of the total population size of the red lionfish in the Atlantic. We have data that show that the numbers and density of this species appear to have doubled from what was documented in 2004."
Whitfield's lab in North Carolina conducted a 15-year study of changes in water temperature off the N.C. coast, looking especially at temperatures at the bottom during the winter. "We found that from 1975 to 1990, the study area saw an increase of water temperature of 1 degree Celsius," she said. "This is a dispersal of a fish that have a free-floating pelagic stage. If waters continue to warm in the Northeast, it may increase the survivability of this species northward up the coast."
For more information about the lionfish:
www.flmnh.ufl.edu/fish
http://coastalscience.noaa.gov/documents/factsheet_lionfish.pdf
http://oceanservice.noaa.gov/education/stories/lionfish/welcome.html
www.seacoastsciencecenter.org
www.neadc.org
Lionfish at a Glance
Mid-1990s
Red lionfish first observed and photographed off West Palm Beach Inlet, Fla. Most likely cause was the release from private aquarium.
2000
Lionfish found off North Carolina in two different locations on wrecks 60 miles (96.5 km) apart. Very small numbers seen over large geographic area. First sightings off South Carolina and Georgia.
2001
Lionfish went from two wrecks to seven locations off North Carolina. First juveniles seen off Long Island, N.Y., and off Bermuda.
2004-05
First verified reports of lionfish in Bahamas.
2006
First verified report of juvenile lionfish off New England at Jamestown, R.I.
- By Bob Michelson, from an interview with Paula Whitfield, fisheries biologist at NOAA's Center for Coastal Fisheries and Habitat Research in Beaufort, N.C.
NOTE: Please report all lionfish sightings and collections to Paula Whitfield at the NOAA Beaufort Laboratory at paula.whitfield@noaa.gov or call +1 252-728-8714.
Yeah, my thanks seem to come and go now. I too have encountered many lionfish in the Exumas, as I've stated before, I believe when they first showed up in the Bahamas they were treated as a novelty, then it became too late to deal with them. We are in the very early stages of an infestation in South Florida and I for one, would rather do my part to erradicate them than sit idley by and let them take over.
Sarcastic, yeah, flame, not so much. You were downright insulting to another member, I'm just using a little humor to point out you have no idea what you are talking about. And being as I addressed you by username, how would you possibly think anyone else would think that post was directed at them? That was all you dude, make no mistake about it.
Where is the wambulance. . .
And let's not forget these are tasty critters: http://www.scubaboard.com/forums/florida-conch-divers/287885-lionfish-recipes.html
mike_s
Contributor
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