For years, North American scuba divers have returned from those once-in-a-lifetime tropical Indo-Pacific diving adventures with exciting accounts of lionfish sightings.  One of the most popular subjects of professional and amateur underwater photographers, the lionfish has always been applauded for its beauty and rarity.  Short of a unique opportunity to visit the natural habitat of this exciting species, most divers have been forced to depend on aquarium exhibits for this rare sighting.  However, there is rapid change in the range of this species and sightings by scuba divers.  The change is not necessarily good.

Since about 2002, sightings of the lionfish are being reported all over the Caribbean, the Bahamas, and the Atlantic coast of the United States.  The number sightings and the number of the lionfish are rapidly increasing, and concerned scientists are worried about migration to the Florida Keys.  While there is disagreement about  exactly how this species has found its way to these waters, it is suspected that discarded aquarium specimen are the most likely cause .  Growing to a length of up to 15 inches, the lionfish is a venomous animal, with no natural enemies in this part of the world.  The appetite of the lionfish is simply amazing, with reports that lionfish will frequently eat other fish as large as 75% of the size of this predator.  While other fish native to the Pacific region know the lionfish well and avoid them entirely, the fish of the Caribbean, the Keys, and the Atlantic have no genetic  knowledge of the dangers.  As a result, reef fish in our part of the world are easy pickings for the voracious appetite of the lionfish.  Scientists are increasingly becoming alarmed at the current and escalating potential danger that this invasion.  The damage to the native fish population is extreme and the spread of the lionfish continues, with apparently no natural barrier to further species expansion, in both number and range.

While scuba divers are conservationist by nature, we may well see the day when kill-on-sight is the only possible control on this dangerous and expanding population.  For more information about the dangers of the lionfish invasion, read this July 2008 report at sciencedaily.com.  We have also provided a video that was originally broadcast in July of 2008 on MSNBC.  Brian Williams narrates this video, which provides further information and evidence of the threat of lionfish in the Bahamas and the Keys.

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Phil Ellis

Discount Scuba Gear at DiveSports.com