Invader gobbling up East Coast, Caribbean fish

[babylonsister]

Invader gobbling up East Coast, Caribbean fish
Lionfish spread could become 'most devastating marine invasion in history'
Doug Kesling / NOAA via AP

These lionfish were seen swimming at a depth of about 130 feet roughly 55 miles off the coast of North Carolina in July 2006.
updated 4:55 p.m. CT, Wed., Aug. 13, 2008


SAN JUAN, Puerto Rico - A maroon-striped marauder with venomous spikes is rapidly multiplying in the Caribbean's warm waters and even off the East Coast — swallowing native species, stinging divers and generally wreaking havoc on an ecologically delicate region.

The red lionfish, a tropical native of the Indian and Pacific oceans that probably escaped from a Florida fish tank, is showing up everywhere — from the coasts of Cuba and Hispaniola to Little Cayman's pristine Bloody Bay Wall, one of the region's prime destinations for divers.

Wherever it appears, the adaptable predator corners fish and crustaceans up to half its size with its billowy fins and sucks them down in one violent gulp.

Research teams observed one lionfish eating 20 small fish in less than 30 minutes.

"This may very well become the most devastating marine invasion in history," said Mark Hixon, an Oregon State University marine ecology expert who compared lionfish to a plague of locusts. "There is probably no way to stop the invasion completely."

A white creature with maroon stripes, the red lionfish has the face of an alien and the ribbony look of something that survived a paper shredder — with poisonous spikes along its spine to ward off enemies.

more...:scared:

http://www.msnbc.msn.com/id/26184738/

[Dreamer Tatum]

1. Do they taste good?

If so, maybe we can eat our way out of it.

[LiberalEsto]

2. Sounds like a multi-national corporation

or a CEO

[Lisa0825]

3. Another way species are spread out of their typical habitats

is by being sucked up in with the ballast water of cruise ships, which then dump them in other areas.