![]() ![]() George Burgess, director of shark research at the Florida Museum of Natural History, calls them the "Norwegian rats of the sea." A mature female lionfish produces some two million eggs every year, and those eggs and larvae are carried far and wide by currents-fuelling an ongoing invasion with a huge ionization energy. Lionfish can take over seafloor and reef habitat and establish densities of more than 200 adults per acre. They think that If these predators start to see lionfish as prey, eventually the lionfish may be kept under control as a part of the ecosystem. I have been working with park officials and local divers in documenting the attempt to teach sharks how to eat lion fish, and eventually to include them in their diet. Although endangered themselves, sharks in the Caribbean may help keep the population of lionfish under control, providing yet another reason to protect the beautiful predators. On the Island of Roatan in Honduras, local divemasters are even trying to train sharks to include lionfish in their diet. Biologists and scientists all around the Caribbean are working with the local Marine Parks trying to find a solution for stopping this impending epidemic. ![]() With no natural predators in the Atlantic, lionfish populations have exploded throughout the waters of the Caribbean and U.S. Lionfish are native to the Pacific and Indian Oceans. Lionfish have the potential to become the most disastrous marine invasion in history. ![]()
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