I just saw a report on the news about a population boom of lionfish in the Florida Keys. They didn't say what kind of lion but they looked like volitans. They're blaming hobbyists that have released their pets into the ocean. Lionfish don't really have any predators after them because of their venom but they can prey on a wide variety of fish and inverts. For this reason there is worry about their impact on the ecosystem. They have been trying to collect and kill them by hand. They also said they are trying to make them more of a food fish which surprized me the most. This is just what I saw in a quick report. If anyone has any input or more information about this I'd like to hear it.
Report on Lionfish invasion of Florida Keys
- Thread starter toolbox31
- Start date
food fish? wth? its not the hobbyists fault. here is an artical to why there are lion fish in florida
http://www.npr.org/templates/story/story.php?storyId=111695369
http://www.npr.org/templates/story/story.php?storyId=111695369
I live in Michigan and have seen first hand what the shipping industry has done to our eco system. First came the zebra mussle and now the asian carp and all brought to us from the ballast tanks of the shipping industry. I think they said the same thing when the lion fish was found in hawaii.
This is a report I found by fox news, not the one I saw on TV http://www.foxnews.com/story/0,2933,403361,00.html . It paints a pretty bad picture, seems a little extreme to me. Anytime a non-native species in introduced to a new ecosystem and starts reproducing it is not a good thing. I agree that it will impact negatively on the locals but the article makes it seem so grim.