What is a Lionfish

Ok, i admit, I am obsessed.  I really am.  I am obsessed with a ridiculously beautiful lionfish that seems to be trying to take over the reefs of the world.  Something inside me tells me this animal has the potential to wreak immeasurable damage on the fish that currently inhabit the reefs.  Every time I go out I see dozens of the red and white lionfish, who taunt me into sticking a metal spear them.  They are so brazen and so combative that sometimes they even come after me.

I will tell you I have been “stung” four or five times by this animal.  It always seems to be the dorsal fin that gets me (for this reason I will strongly suggest you don’t handle these animals at all).  To describe the sting, I would have to say it is something like what I would expect a blow from a ball peen hammer to inflict.  Let me also be the first to post this in public:

Sticking your hand down your shorts and urinating on your hand doesn’t do ANY good!

Just like in snakes, these animals are “venomous” and not “poisonous.”  This means that the tips of their spines secrete a venom when they push through your rediculously thin gloves while trying to manipulate an obviously upset fish off a metal pole in thirty feet of water crashing over the reef in a spot called “SALSA BRAVA.”  Yup….. guess what that means?

While the mood of this post is a little lighthearted, the fact that every fish I find has MULTIPLE baby reef fish in it’s stomach, it is a sobering and scary thought about the potential of the lionfish on reefs worldwide.  I even pulled one 10cm (thats only about 4 inches) animal that had 15 one inch parrotfish in it’s stomach.

So what is a lionfish?

To me, someone who has worked with animals all my adult life, the lionfish can be so many things.  True, it is an invasive species, it is a threat to reefs worldwide, it is a venomous fish which should be treated with respect in the wild.  To me though, the lionfish gives us as conservationists, and even the human race options for so much more.

Since it lives so deep in the ocean (hundreds of feet down) below the realistic depth scuba divers can go, the animal is a truly sustainable food source.  I can say from first hand experience, an area that gets “eradicated” will be filled back up within weeks if not days.

Project Green Jungle is at the forefront with a select few individuals, organizations, and even governments in the commercial collection, preparation, and shipping of this gourmet fish.  Commercial Markets in the US and abroad will be directly funding conservation of reefs throughout the Caribbean, promoting a value and vision Project Green Jungle and the Florida International Teaching Zoo has held since DAY ONE:

Conservation is most effectively driven by consumers via reponsible commercial markets

To support our projects, and put us in the water more donate to our project.  We are project of the Florida International Teaching Zoo, a 501(c)3 nonprofit corporation in the USA.

For every $25 donated, we can spend one half day studying Lionfish. Your donation is tax deductible in the US.

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Lionfish Project Donors:

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Related posts:

1. Lionfish Eradication update, June 2010
2. Lionfish, the Fruit of the Sea
3. Lionfish Eradication Techniques