Monday, March 2, 2009

The ornate striping and exotic body shape has made the lionfish a must-have for many tropical fish collectors and budding young aquarists.

However, one lionfish received anything but a warm welcome from Florida Keys National Marine Sanctuary officials and coral reef conservationists when it arrived in the waters off Key Largo in January. A diver from Greenville, S.C., was diving near the Benwood wreck off Key Largo in January when she spotted the lionfish in about 66 feet of water.

Since then, the Keys environmental group REEF (Reef Environmental Education Foundation) and sanctuary officials have made the finned invader persona non grata, and the agencies have beefed up efforts to make divers aware of them. They have started an aggressive outreach campaign at Keys dive shops, and hope to build awareness through dive magazines and diving Web sites.

The Keys are the latest area where the fish has made an appearance. Lionfish have been spotted off Palm Beach, Boca Raton and Miami beginning in 1992, and Bermuda, North Carolina, South Carolina and Georgia beginning in 2000. The lionfish was first spotted in the Bahamas in 2004, and by 2007 the waters of the island nation were "inundated" with them, said Laddie Akins, a research diver and REEF special projects director. Akins and other researchers collected 216 lionfish in fall of the 2007 off a small reef area southwest of Nassau, Akins said.

"If you extrapolate that through the entire Bahamas, that's a lot," Akins said. "That is our concern. We have only seen one fish so far, but others could be showing up soon."

The cryptic nature of lionfish makes them difficult to count, according to a lionfish study conducted by Akins, National Oceanic and Atmospheric Administration biologist James Morris and other researchers. Estimates of lionfish in complex coral reef habitats probably underrepresent the population of juveniles, according to the study.

"The rate at which the lionfish have established themselves in these areas is astounding," said Morris, who researches lionfish for NOAA. "This is a new problem in the marine environment."

The concern about lionfish goes beyond the fear of the fish's venomous spines pricking a careless snorkeler or diver. The fear is the fish, native to the Indo-Pacific, will compete for food and habitat with native reef species.

Lionfish also could impact the population of ras, damsels and other tropical fish, as well as baby grouper and yellowtail snapper, by gobbling them up. Forty different species of fish have been found in the bellies of lionfish collected in the Bahamas, Akins said, adding that one lionfish collected off the Bahamas had a small baby Nassau grouper, a protected species, in its stomach.

Researchers have begun a more thorough analysis of the potential impact of lionfish on whole coral reef fish communities in the Bahamas, where data on stomach contents are being combined with population estimates across various reef habitat types. The authors of the study believe lionfish are thriving, and may be taking over other fish's feeding spots, because many species of larger reef fishes along the East Coast and Caribbean are overfished.

Adding to the dilemma, lionfish begin reproducing when they are small and reproduce during all seasons of the year. A single lionfish can produce 30,000 eggs at a time, despite many lost to predation, Akins said.

How they have expanded from their home range is still not known, but some researchers speculate hobby fish collectors have dumped them in the ocean in places outside of their native Indo-Pacific -- not unlike iguanas, pythons and other exotic reptiles that have invaded Florida and the Keys. Fish species also can travel in the ballast tanks of large cruise ships and freighters, and subsequently be pumped out into local waters in different ports around the world.

REEF has printed lionfish stickers and is disseminating them through Keys dive shops, government offices, businesses, and sport and commercial divers associations.

Divers wanting more info can visit the REEF headquarters at Mile Marker 98 in Key Largo, where they also can purchase lionfish collecting supplies -- puncture proof gloves, collecting nets and bags. They also can visit the group's Web site at http://www.reef.org.

tohara@keysnews.com