Lionfish Population Has Scientists Worried

PlusLionfish Population Has Scientists WorriedLionfish Population Has Scientists WorriedThe Associated PressScientists and Caribbean governments alike are watching with alarm as the invasive lionfish sweep through the western Atlantic. The venomous lionfish are considered a danger to people, coral reefs and commercial fisheries. (August 4)Netting these beautiful but dangerous fish in the Atlantic is the first line of defense against a fast-growing and hungry army of invaders.A voracious predator, lionfish are an exotic species whose population explosion continues to threaten the US east coast and spread further south throughout the Caribbean.Scientists are struggling to understand this fast moving phenomenon ... But they are already sounding the alarm."They have just literally exploded through time, a population explosion - it is like a plague of locusts." Oregon State University Professor Mark Hixon was leading a team of research students studying coral reefs in the 1990s when they first noticed invasive lionfish. They were forced to change their research matter when the lionfish moved in."What we found was that lionfish reduce the abundance of small fish on coral reefs by 80 percent in just a five week period."The US government has continued to monitor lionfish spottings and tracked a substantial jump in sightings in 2004."They went up the Gulf Stream into North Carolina and established a population, over to Bermuda and then in about 2004 we started seeing them in the ...



http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=Ar0CX8dj948&hl=en

palm springs hotel travel