TV alert... Lionfish on NBC Nightly News

Jandree22

New member
Just saw a commercial w/Brian Williams talking about a story they'll be covering on this evening's "NBC Nightly News". Lionfish, specifically how their population is getting out of control and the steps being taken to help control it.

Just an FYI ;)
 
....shrug sometimes it bugs me that us humans try to balance out nature...sometimes makes me think maybe we should just leave it alone and let mother nature work her magic....

oh well...we as americans like to get into business thats not ours lol
 
well, I have a feeling they're out of control because us humans released lionfish into non-native habitats. more specifically, they said they're out of control on the east coast of the US. d'oh! :rolleye1:
 
<a href=showthread.php?s=&postid=12852788#post12852788 target=_blank>Originally posted</a> by jubjubrsx
....shrug sometimes it bugs me that us humans try to balance out nature...sometimes makes me think maybe we should just leave it alone and let mother nature work her magic....

oh well...we as americans like to get into business thats not ours lol

we kill deer to keep the population in check
 
<a href=showthread.php?s=&postid=12853015#post12853015 target=_blank>Originally posted</a> by thecichlidpleco
we kill deer to keep the population in check

And also for eatings.


You know what this means everybody...time to start up that Lionfish species tank!
 
<a href=showthread.php?s=&postid=12853015#post12853015 target=_blank>Originally posted</a> by thecichlidpleco
we kill deer to keep the population in check
wonder if you can get good bologna and jerky out of a Lionfish... maybe the venom makes it nice and spicy :)
 
Damn... a brief mention about Congress drafting a bill that would prohibit importing of non-native species into this country. :eek2:

Interesting though how the entire infestation is speculated to have come from 6-7 original Lionfish, possibly from aquariums swept away back in Hurricane Andrew
 
<a href=showthread.php?s=&postid=12853128#post12853128 target=_blank>Originally posted</a> by Jandree22
Damn... a brief mention about Congress drafting a bill that would prohibit importing of non-native species into this country. :eek2:

I wonder how we could encourage the supporters of that bill to really help out and go catch as many lionfish as they can bare-handed for transport back to their normal range... :rolleye1:
 
<a href=showthread.php?s=&postid=12853128#post12853128 target=_blank>Originally posted</a> by Jandree22
Interesting though how the entire infestation is speculated to have come from 6-7 original Lionfish, possibly from aquariums swept away back in Hurricane Andrew

Or much more likely, they were released by aquarists that didn't want them anymore.
 
i would bet the only reason that story made it to the news is because the tourism reefs in the keys and bahamas etc, have noticed an increase of lions and a decrease of native " pretty fish". Thus tourism dollars are feared lost, and its now on the news....

One thing I didnt agree with in the news piece was they stated in the piece that this had started in 91 after Hurricane Andrew, thats BS, as other aquaria related sources I have previously read stated that they started seeing them on the carolina wrecks in the 80's, and cited the importation of the original lionfish in the late 70's.

Lionfish are commonly found on "reef structures" in the Atlantic.... so that means any place that we have a wreck or an outcropping you can now find them.. I doubt it's quite an epidemic yet IMO, but it is our fault they are there.. or our parents fault....(so to speak) they didnt move in there on their own....
 
<a href=showthread.php?s=&postid=12853015#post12853015 target=_blank>Originally posted</a> by thecichlidpleco
we kill deer to keep the population in check [/QUOTE

Having to kill the deer is a human created problem too. we destroy their habitat, and kill all their natural preditors, then wonder why there are so many of them running around our neighborhoods.... Humans mess everything up.
 
From what I read about it a year or 2 ago, they thought then that they were caught in the ballast tanks of some ships and were released that way (the larvae that is)
 
There's a pretty solid case that the invasion stems from aquarium releases.

There's no doubt that scattered lionfish have been in the Atlantic for at least 30 years. We have reports of dive guides and hobbyists releasing them at least that far back. The difference was that they were never dense enough to establish breeding populations. We have Pacific tangs from aquarium releases in the Atlantic too, but they aren't established.

Sightings around FL became more and more frequent through the 1990s and in 2000 the first documented captures occurred there. Since then the pattern of sightings and captures has moved quickly north and more slowly to the south. That's exactly the pattern you would expect to see if south FL was the original introduction site. Furthermore, the fact that the animals hadn't yet reached their potential range limitations to the north suggests that the establishment was relatively new in 2000.

Genetic tests have also shown that the lions from the entire Atlantic seem to have come from just a handful of individuals from the same original Indonesian population. Although it's only circumstantial, pinpointing Indonesia as the original source adds some credence to the aquarium escapee theory since as we know, Indonesia is one of the biggest exporters of ornamental fish.

Given that we know there were a handful of these fish released at a single point in south FL (i.e., high density) a few years before their establishment was discovered, that release seems the most likely culprit. Otherwise, to fit the evidence there would have to be several releases of lionfish from the same Indonesian population at roughly the same time into a small enough area of south FL that about 6-8 of them would form a dense, breeding population.

Given the long distance they would have had to travel and the genetic diversity that is preserved, it's extremely unlikely that the introduction was via ballast water.
 
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