I didnt bother reading the entire thing but in scuba class we had a lady who has been doing the head research on the lionfish population in the Caribbean and fl., we also had to do a report on it. They are not an invasive speices soely from people realeaseing them, many were released when hurricane andrew hit, there were petstores off of A1A and when the hurricane hit not only did it take down the petstores, but what do you think happened to the fish? they swam into the ocean, the hurricane tore up the stores, tanks broke and fish swam into the flood water and alot of the lion fish survived. Also when ships cross the seas for pet trade some manage to get loose into the ocean and of course the many careless people who realease them. Not all of the lion fish along the east coast were put there by carless people (A LARGE Marjority of them are from carless owners, but the hurricane also had a profound imapct on it), some of it was accidents such as what happened with hurricane andrew (and if you dont believe me look it up on the internet the hurricane andrew petstores are the first thing you will usually read about), hurricane andrew had a big impact on alot of the lion fish that are currently inhabiting FL. Also many of them have came to the US from the Caribbean, as they were already an established invasive species there. There are also a lot of spear fishermen who have started different programs to take these fish out as they have no natural predators here or in the Caribbean. Its a big problem, but people are working to try to stop the spreading of them. The lionfish are established along the east coast, including the northern section.
