Lionfish – nice to look at, but dangerous

Lionfish are actually native to the tropics and the Red Sea. They migrated to the Mediterranean Sea via the Suez Canal a few years ago. Since they have no natural enemies here, they can reproduce unhindered. And they do so diligently: each female lays up to 30,000 eggs – every two days! This makes them an omnipresent threat to the native inhabitants: lionfish are optimally camouflaged by their spotted colouring and are among the most successful hunters in the Mediterranean.

They grow up to 40 centimetres, have poisonous spines and are spreading rapidly in the Mediterranean: Lionfish, also called lionfish. An EU-funded project has now declared war on the poisonous fish, which destroy coral reefs and decimate other fish species. Now the battle has been declared against the fish, so that they are useful after all.

Biologists are concerned because the introduced predator has no natural enemies in the Mediterranean. Large sharks could eat the lionfish, but since these sea creatures are overfished (if not fished out), the lionfish lacks „top down control“ in the food web. It also has spines in some of its fins with a complex cocktail of venom (some components are still poorly understood) that it readily uses when threatened, giving it a huge advantage over other fish.

What to do against the invader? In Cyprus, the RELIONMED project aims to raise awareness and organise regular collections of the lionfish. It is also being discussed whether the fish should not be deliberately hunted, caught and served as food fish in restaurants. Since the poisonous fins are not eaten, this should not be a problem, but there are not enough reliable studies on this yet.

Tags:
lionfish, marine life cyprus, padi underwater naturalist, private scuba guid