Lion Fish Invade Carolina Coast

[plhsurfer]

Interesting Article from the National Oceanic and Atmospheric Administration
http://www.noaanews.noaa.gov/stories2004/s2264.htm
Brief paragraph
"July 16, 2004 — NOAA scientists will lead a diving expedition off the North Carolina coast August 2-20 to learn more about a venomous predatory fish whose population appears to be growing in waters along Florida, North Carolina and Bermuda"

 

[wocka]

YES!! :happy: i cant wait to see one snorkeling in florida someday!

 

[irenicus]

Very interesting. :thinking:

 

[moraym]

That's bad, BAD news. They're already being spotted more frequently in Florida. Lions have no real natural predators on the east coast, they weren't meant to be living in these waters, and they are and will continue to cause havoc on the reef systems they inhabit.

 

[wocka]

im sure sharks will try to eat them

 

[moraym]

Not so far, so far they have been spreading far, far too rapidly. I don't know of many sharks that would want a bite of a lion, not sure if sharks would recognize it as food or not. Lions aren't enormous and tend (at least where they've found them in Florida) to stick in and under ledges and rocks, and typically in areas out of open water where sharks would be most effective in hunting/eating them.

 

[flatzboy]

Moraym why is this such bad news? Why would cause havoc on reefs??? If they live over in the red sea then how come they don't destroy the reefs over there? Also they will eat little fish but not enough to wipe out an entire speices. I am not trying to be mean but just want to learn, so could you explain your post for me please.
Thanks in advance

 

[bullshark]

Originally posted by FLATZBOY
Moraym why is this such bad news? Why would cause havoc on reefs??? If they live over in the red sea then how come they don't destroy the reefs over there? Also they will eat little fish but not enough to wipe out an entire speices. I am not trying to be mean but just want to learn, so could you explain your post for me please.
Thanks in advance

Its been well documented that an introduced species can and will most likely disrupt the ecosystem. Just look at the dingo in Austrailia. It naturally did not occur there. It has no preditors. It is an epidemic as lots of native species are being wiped out, like rabbits and such...The dingo is spreading like wildfire over there....
In the case of the lionfish in the Atlantic, it has no natural preditors there and will spread rapidly, consume prey, not leaving a balanced ecosystem.
On the other hand, I used to have a volitans lion in a tank with a green moray, which IS naturally occuring in the Atlantic, and was eaten by the green moray.

 

[moraym]

FLATZBOY, i'm not saying the entire ocean will turn inside out and everything will die, but by keeping even a small reef we can see how balanced a naturally occuring ecosystem must be. Even though lions will only be taking out smaller fish it will still have an entire impact on the entire chain and ecosystem.
In the Indo-Pacific and Tahiti (dwarf lions origins) there are other naturally occuring things that will control a lion population, it doesn't even have to be other fish, that region will have different bacterias and different illnesses that will inflict population control by limiting youth survival rate and whatnot. That is why it isn't reccomended to keep Indo-Pacific LR and fish with a bunch of stuff you dug up or found at your local beach, it all has its own natural flora and fauna, much of which is microscopic or unseen.
So whereas it will not lead to an extinction of the Atlantic by any means, it is a very bad sign that the lions are spreading that rapidly along the east coast, and those are just the lions we see, there and undoubtedly many more along the shoreline.

 

[daniel411]

Good reply MorayM

 

[bang guy]

Originally posted by FLATZBOY
Moraym why is this such bad news?
Lionfish eat small fish and have not predators.
This means the population will continue to climb until they are out of food.
All fish are small at some time in their life.
This means that before the Lionfish population declines most other fish will become scarce.

 

[wocka]

i think they should catch the ones they can get

 

[pufferman]

It's really no surprise......There are many irresponsible and ill-informed fish owners out there who do not even bother to consider the impact of their actions on the marine ecology. The sad part is there is nothing we can do about it.

 

[flatzboy]

Thanks moraym, bullshark, and bang I just needed a little info so I could understand.

 

[chandler04]

I think that is awesome!!! JK, but I still wanna go and catch a whole bunch of em and sell em. I hear they are even right off of Long Island, whcih is a surprise to me. I could see the problems with this though.............. . . . . . . . . . ....... . . . . . . . . . ...... . . . . .... . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . ............................

 

[flatzboy]

Chandler are you talking about Long Island New York. Thats kinda weird cuz wouldn't the water be to cold.

 

[wocka]

would they eat small clowns?

 

[bullshark]

Yes, they would eat small clowns. They would eat almost anything that can fit in their mouth.

 

[wocka]

lol loooks like there wont be a Finding Nemo 2!!

 

[moraym]

Nemo 2 will be found by a hungry lion's mouth.