NOAA’s National Centers for Coastal Ocean Science and its partners publish first ever guidelines for coastal managers to control the spread of invasive lionfish.
Lionfish are now found in waters from North Carolina south to Florida, the Caribbean, and all Gulf of Mexico states.
Lionfish have no natural predators and are taking food and habitat from native fish that are important to the local ecology and economy. Lionfish are now found in waters from North Carolina south to Florida, the Caribbean, and all Gulf of Mexico states.
This new manual, Invasive Lionfish: A Guide to Control and Management includes the best available science and practices for controlling lionfish in marine protected areas, national parks, and other conservation areas.
By following suggestions in the new publication, resource managers can develop effective local control plans. The guide is available free online.
Today lionfish are found in nearly all marine habitats in the Atlantic along the Southeast United States and in the Gulf of Mexico and Caribbean waters. Densities of lionfish have surpassed some native reef fish in many locations.
The ecological impacts of this invasion are far-reaching — from disruptions to the structure and function of reef communities to impacts on commercial fishing and the tourism industry.
Most ecologists and fishery managers believe that lionfish being introduced from the Pacific to the Atlantic is one of the major ecological disasters of the last two decades
James Morris Jr., Ph.D., NOAA ecologist at the Center for Coastal Fisheries and Habitat Research
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