What impact does a lionfish have

The
“most disastrous marine invasion in history,”

or at least that is the potential impace of the beautiful but deadly Lionfish (Pterois volitans).

The Lionfish has so many things going for it’s potential takeover of the reef.

• Within 36 hours of successful breeding, between 4,000 and 30,000 lionfish eggs have already hatched and the fry are feeding on plankton.
• Currently, little data is available about predation on Lionfish.  I am putting video up of animals predating on lionfish here.
• Lionfish feed on a wide variety of Prey, and eat large quantities of baby and small reef fish (I one time found 15 baby reef fish in the stomach of one 10cm specimen)!

So to answer the question…

Nobody knows the impact of the lionfish at this stage.

I have been in the waters just under the word “Panama” in the graphic to the right, and I see them eating and spreading rapidly through our ecosystem, so I can say with no doubt that the lionfish in fact will have an impact on reefs as we know them.  The fact that we don’t know, creates even more urgency for support of programs like ours.  We are starting monitoring and microhabitat studies in September in conjunction with the Government of Costa Rica and the US Government.

In fact, we are going to begin shipping the lionfish to the United States as part of the NOAA’s “Eat Lionfish!” campaign.  While you are eating one of the most tasty fish I have ever eaten, you will be directly supporting the conservation efforts in the caribbean.

To Donate to this project, please enter your info below.  Every $25 dollars donated allows us to go out into the reefs and study these animals so we can understand them better, conserving our vital reefs in the process.

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Related posts:

1. Lionfish Eradication update, June 2010
2. What is a Lionfish
3. Confirmed Lionfish Populations in Costa Rica
4. Lionfish, the Fruit of the Sea
5. Wild Predation on Lionfish