Invasive species from a different perspective...

[Mike Cavanaugh]

The Lion fish.

I went scuba diving today... First time I have been out in a while. Went to a place called Cassablanca.. about 32 miles offshore Jacksonville in 105 feet of water. It is an old purposely sunk ship.

Anyways, while I was laying on the bottom of the ocean, in search of grouper, experiencing total bliss, I witnessed what I have been reading about in scuba magazines for a while. The wreck was COVERED with Lion Fish.

A VERY basic breakdown of the situation is this.... It is a VERY poisonous predator fish. It is a bad mamma jamma. They come from Asia....
As it turns out the pet industry had a saltwater fish facility in Biscayne Bay, Florida that was destroyed during Hurricane Andrew in 1992. Many of their specimens were accidentally released into the Atlantic Ocean, including six red lionfish. These fish survived and formed a colony on the Florida coast over the years as they reproduced.

Well to make a long story short, they are now all over the place... and it was clear to see that they played a major part in life on that ship wreck. What does it mean for the long run? who knows.

Thought I would share.

[Creeptastic]

I think lionfish are absolutely beautiful. Would have loved to seen that!! It is true that they are one of the most venemous fish, yet in almost all cases, not fatal to humans.

[SPJ]

It's like a rally nasty bee sting.
I got nailed by a 10 inch one when cleaning a tank a few years ago. Hurts like crazy but run your hand under the hot water (the hottest you can stand) and in a few minutes the pain goes away. It was sore for a couple of days but nothing major.
I got tagged by a tiny little bark scorpion and that pain was unbeleivable. The lion fish was a walk in the park next to that.

[mrshawt]

You scuba dive too? I just got certified in April.

[Mike Cavanaugh]

well, I did not see them as beautiful at all. I thought they were VERY ugly because I know that they weren't supposed to be there... And I know that from what I have read, they ARE seriously changing the natural order of reefs from Key west all the way up to New York.

What will the final outcome be? That is the real question that is very troubling to me. Will they end all life in the ocean? No. Will they mess up the natural order of things and likely significantly the reefs look when I teach my sons to dive? Yes, they already have.

They are not by themselves fatal to humans. They cause extreme pain, headaches, vomiting, and trouble breathing. That combined with other factors can cause human fatalities. BUT that is not what this is about. It is about the unnatural changes to the reefs. Something that may not have ever happened without humans screwing things up.

[BrucenBruce]

Not only the reefs.

The black sea bass fishery has noticed the presence of lionfish, in the reduced numbers of black sea bass annual recruitment. Seems we aren't the only things out there that think black sea bass are tasty . . .

~Bruce, who spent part of the afternoon cutting back imported wild grapevine and Chinese bittersweet in his own suburban front yard.

[m00kfu]

Anyways, while I was laying on the bottom of the ocean, in search of grouper, experiencing total bliss, I witnessed what I have been reading about in scuba magazines for a while. The wreck was COVERED with Lion Fish.

You're going to give us a description like this without any pictures? C'mon now Mike, you've been around here long enough to know better than that.

[Ben Biscy]

i'd love it if people cared this much about kudzu. seriously, this crap is known to devour young children, small animals, and grandma if unatended! dangerous stuff1!!

[th3jok3r]

yea we screw alot of things up... lion fish, snake heads, depleting the ozone, nuclear war, where does it stop or where will the world be a century from now?

[Jason Bowden]

I went to the bahamas last november on my honey moon. My wife and I went scuba diving several times and saw many lion fish. Some were huge(looked about 18 inches) and seems like some hung out with each other, like 5 or 6 in a group just hovering around the ship wrecks, etc..

It didn't dawn on me that they didn't belong there until I read this post. I even had to look up their native range. Indo-West Pacific

Thanks for the interesting post Mike. I wonder if they weren't started there by man's mistakes. Could they have made it there naturally??? Is there proof of hurricane surviving lion fish?