Dear Editor,
I have been reading the extremely one sided,
unscientific
coverage of the so-called lionfish invasion of the Bahamas, Caribbean
and
Atlantic. While I cannot speak for the Caribbean or the Atlantic north
of
the Bahamas, I have extensive experience in reef conservation and
observation
in the Bahamas. My studies have led me to a very different conclusion
to
what is currently being promoted on the subject of lionfish.
The article from US News concerning Mark
Hixon and
his new grant to study lionfish.
Mark Hixon is doing a nice job creating hysteria
and
acquiring grant money. What he is not doing is valid research on coral
reef
ecosystems.
If you start with the assumption that lionfish are
evil
alien invaders, everything you look for will be colored by that
assumption. The
results of your study will not be valid in any way.
Lionfish have invaded the Atlantic. That is a done
deal. Due
to their biology there is pretty much nothing to be done about that.
What most people do not realize is that the
lionfish are not
so much invaders as invited guests. Overfishing of reef fish from the
large
fish to the medium sized fish created an explosion of small fish in the
Atlantic and Caribbean. This population explosion of the 'small
ornamentals'
has been creating a condition that is hostile to coral with subsequent
decline
of the reef forming hard coral.
The lionfish entered an 'all-you-can-eat' buffet
with no
competition. The fish which used to control the small ornamentals;
groupers,
snappers and such, have ended up on people's dinner plates. Some species
such
as Goliath Grouper and Nassau Grouper are functionally extinct. There
are not
enough of them to fill their niche.
Algal overgrowth is not controlled by any species
of fish.
Algal overgrowth is controlled by several species of invertebrates,
among them
different species of Urchin and crabs. The fish, that get credit for
being
'herbivores', like the parrotfish group, are really carnivores and
omnivores.
As such they eat the invertebrates that would normally keep the reef
almost
free of macro-algae
Since the invasion of the lionfish in the Bahamas, I
have
observed the reef getting healthier. The actual reef-building hard
corals are
not being killed back from out-of-control algae. Dead areas of the reef,
which
were covered by a mat of algae several inches thick, are now bare and
not only
open to coral recruitment, such recruitment has started taking place.
Actual research (as opposed to Hixon style
hysteria) has
demonstrated that medium sized general predators are key to stabilizing
an
ecosystem. Since almost all native medium sized general predators have
been
removed from the Bahama reefs, the lionfish is filling their niche.
Overfishing has been the cause of much of the
reef's
problems. Killing more fish will not solve any problem.
The funds and efforts used or misused to ‘control’
lionfish would be much better used to deal with the actual problems the
reef is
facing. The Bahamas has or had a species of fish that would keep the
lionfish in check, the Goliath Grouper, or Jewfish, properly called
Epinephelus
itajara. This is the species that preys on lionfish in the Pacific.
Conservation efforts to bring back our stock of E. itajara would do more
to
affect lionfish, since the large grouper can hunt the lionfish wherever
they
live. (I have personally seen breeding aggregations of lionfish below
200
feet of sea water.)
Selling spears to hunt lionfish in shallow water
will only
further degrade the reef while leaving the vast majority of breeding
lionfish
intact. Also making hunting efforts pointless is the fact that juvenile
lionfish
ride the currents and weed mats for the first ten to twelve months of
their life.
You would have a much better chance of eliminating cockroaches than
lionfish.
Thank you for giving me this opportunity to
communicate with you,
Sincerely,
Fred Riger
Grand Bahama Scuba
