The lionfish, depredator of the Caribbean

Taking a closer look of this beautiful fish, we can see how dangerous he is, the center of marine biodiversity of the Simon Bolivar University will give us a grater approach to this fish:

Foto: Ahmed Abd Al Aziz)

 The lionfish (Pterois volitans, P. miles) is part of the Scorpaenidae family, very common in the Pacific and Indic oceans. Because of its colorful skin and its small ornamented wings, it has always been very attractive for aquarists; they have encouraged the international commercialization of the lionfish.


In consequence this fish, probably accidentally, have reach the Atlantic Ocean and it has become a plague because it represents a threat to the fishes and other maritime creatures that were already there since he feasts them and this represents a unbalanced to the maritime ecosystem of the Occidental waters of the Atlantic Ocean. Also the lionfish represents a threat to unaware swimmers that go into the ocean and manipulate the fish in a wrong way, these could cause lesions that would most probably led to a very hurtful wound, this could represent a problem to public healthcare.

 Several countries along the region had been developing different initiatives trying to control the fish’s overpopulation in the Atlantic Ocean. The total eradication of the fish seems unlikely and the efforts to do so are very expensive and not very useful. There are several myths that say how the lionfish got to the Pacific Ocean.

The most famous one says that in the 90’s during the hurricane Andrew, the one that destroy half of Florida (USA), destroy a fish tank which was taking the fish to the aquarium and then the specie began its propagation through out the region. There are also some rumors that indicate that some Koreans let them scape while they where taking the fish to the US.





 Regardless of the rumors, this fish is killing the maritime fauna of the Caribbean; Venezuela is not the only country suffering from this problem, all the countries that conform the Caribbean and part of the US are suffering from it. You can see here how the fish has invade this part of the globe.