Imperiled Reef by Sandy Sheehy;

Author:Sandy Sheehy;
Language: eng
Format: epub
Publisher: University Press of Florida
Published: 2021-06-15T00:00:00+00:00

III

WHAT WORKS

Joining Forces to Save the Reef

15

INVASION OF THE LIONFISH

It was happy hour at Hamanasi, an upscale eco-resort on the Belize coast about 120 miles south of Belize City. The bar was large and airy, with couches and chairs upholstered in tropical prints and arranged in conversation groups. A bookcase stocked with board games and jigsaw puzzles sat against one wall, and two sets of French doors led out to the verandah and the lighted pool beyond. Behind a curving bar crafted of sustainable hardwood, the best mixologist in this part of the country was filling a silver shaker with the ingredients of the drink of the day, a concoction involving coconut rum, vodka, fresh pineapple juice, and blue curaçao.

Although the place was usually busy, this evening it was packed. Free appetizers provided the lure, and the head cook had laid them out on a table brought in for the purpose. Neatly lettered signs identified each snack—lionfish fingers, lionfish cakes, lionfish balls, lionfish ceviche. Various dipping sauces—buffalo-wing style, barbecue, jerk, mustard, sweet-and-sour—rounded out the presentation. The intention was clear: Get the bar’s patrons to try the mild, slightly sweet-tasting meat of this fish, an invasive species with a stunning rate of reproduction and no natural enemies in the Caribbean. Once guests had sampled lionfish, they would be more inclined to order it as fish tacos at lunch or as the catch-of-the-day at dinner.

Lionfishes (red lionfish: Pterois volitans and its cousin the common lionfish or devil firefish: Pterois miles) are a prime example of how human thoughtlessness can disrupt a fragile ecosystem and how human ingenuity and cooperation may be able to control—or at least reduce—the damage. Although they are native to the Indo-Pacific, specifically to the tropical waters surrounding the Philippines, Indonesia, and the islands of the South Pacific,1 in the early 1990s lionfishes began appearing in South Florida. The first confirmed sighting, in 1985, was treated as a curiosity, rather than a threat,2 but around 2000 the population exploded and by 2010 lionfishes had settled in throughout the Caribbean and the warm waters of the Western Atlantic, from North Carolina to Brazil. By 2002 they had been sighted as far north as Long Island.3 No one knows definitively how these invasive species were introduced to an environment half a world away from their home.

One guess marine scientists can offer is that the fishes were released intentionally from home aquariums by owners who didn’t recognize their potential for destruction. With distinctive maroon or brown stripes set off against white, antennae jutting like horns from their foreheads, and tapered pectoral fins rippling like feathers, lionfishes are among the most exotically beautiful denizens of the sea. Small wonder that they became prized in the aquarium trade. But adults average 12 inches in length and can grow to 18, much too big for the typical saltwater tank in a living room. And when a family moves from Florida to Chicago, the aquarium doesn’t travel full.

Some believe that lionfishes escaped from Florida pet shops

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