Wednesday, December 24, 2008

The Pacific Lionfish Continues Spreading Southward in the Caribbean Region

As a followup to a prior story, the invasive Pacific fish, the lionfish, has now been sighted in Belize, the first such sighting in Central America.  As the species spreads southward, the Bonaire National Marine Park is making plans for its arrival on Bonaire.

Although not yet sighted in the Netherlands Antilles or Aruba, it’s only a matter of time before the lionfish makes an appearance in local waters.  Certain research by Mark Albins in the Bahamas indicates that a single lionfish transplanted onto small patch reefs can reduce the recruitment of natives fishes by 80%.

Because of the effect the species may make on Bonaire’s reefs, STINAPA and the Bonaire National Marine Park are making proactive plans for the fish’s arrival.

The lionfish has no natural predators in the local Caribbean waters, which is one reason why it can easily consume a large number of small reef fish.  Therefore, STINAPA is instituting a plan to use the island’s dive guides, who are in the water each day, to immediately notify the marine park when a lionfish is spotted.  When this occurs, Bonaire National Marine Park staff will enter the water at that dive site, and each ranger will be carrying two aquarium-type nets, and their plan will be to catch the fish and thus remove it from the area.  STINAPA does acknowledge that this plan may have to be adjusted as time passes, depending upon the number of sightings reported. 

Lad Akins, from REEF, provides some valuable web site links for lionfish information and reportings of sightings.  He reports that many have already been collaborating on research, education/outreach, early detection/reporting/rapid response and control, and many lessons have been learned from the past few years of intense work in the Bahamas, Bermuda, the US East Coast and the northern Caribbean.

For those of interested in staying current on lionfish distribution and new reports, please consider signing up for the USGS early warning notification system.  All data that is received is forwarded into this master database and any new records of lionfish or other non-native species are broadcast to those signed up for the early warning system. You can access the site at by clicking here, and just follow the links to subscribe.  For each of the records listed in the lionfish distribution map, additional information is accessed by clicking on the map dot.  Records in this system are well vetted and QA generally requires an image or very strong evidence of occurrence before inclusion.

Another site of interest may be the lionfish progression map showing the spread of this invasion by year, available by clicking here.  This map is updated regularly though not daily.

Sightings of lionfish and other non-native species can be reported via either the REEF Exotic Species Reporting page or the USGS NAS System. (Source:  NACRI and STINAPA (Bonaire National Marine Park))

Note Update January 15, 2009: The invasive Lionfish are coming further and further south and are now reported from the Providence/San Andres area (Colombian islands close to Nicaragua) at about the same latitude as the ABC islands. This sighting has now also been included on the USGS map of all sightings.

Lionfish reaching the Colombian islands are attributed to larvae coming in from the Greater Antilles, i.e. Jamaica, Hispañola and Puerto Rico, where they are now well established. The spread so far fits with theories on how drifting larvae spread throughout the region and with satellite studies on the distribution of released drifters.

Note that the fish in this report appears to be a grown adult, so it must have been swimming around there for at least a few years before now finally being spotted. And these are islands popular with divers. We might already have them in our islands but just not know it. Keep a look out and if one is sited in our waters, try to take a picture, and make note of depth, dive site, and any other locational notes, then contact the Bonaire National Marine Park at 717-8444.