[Coral-List] Lionfish eaten and potential new invaders RE: Frogfish eat lionfish

Sat May 28 05:04:19 EDT 2011

Sarah,
     I thought I remembered some mention somewhere of other Pacific reef fish being found in Florida waters, like angelfish.  Perhaps these two species of lionfish are the only species which have established populations and spread out of several or many that have been released .  That would fit with the experience in Hawaii, where deliberate introductions of around 20,000 individuals per species of several species were made in the past, and two took and expanded, one (Lutjanus kasmira) is now the full length of the chain, 1523 miles long, and without the strong unidirectional currents from one island to another that characterize parts of the western Atlantic.  My guess is that there have been other introductions in Florida, and there will be more introductions in the future.  The best way to deal with invasive species is not to introduce them in the first place, once they are loose they are often very difficult or impossible to control, and
 almost every last one has been impossible to eradicate so far.  A few people do some pretty crazy things, and I think we would do well to think and discuss how future introductions that could go wrong could be averted.  Assuming no one will try to release Pacific species in Florida in the future seems to me like putting our head in the sand.  How could we possibly know that no one will do that?  (Florida has over 18 million people)  The consequences could be pretty bad, could be even worse than lionfish are.  How can anyone guarantee it will not happen?  Isn't the precautionary approach to do what we can to forestall future introductions?  Further, this is not just a problem for Florida.  There are large numbers of marine species that have been introduced all over the world (most by ships I'd think), and while a majority have caused no problems so far, quite a few have caused a lot of problems, and some have caused major problems and cost
 hundreds of millions of dollars.  It's a problem for all of us.      Cheers,  Doug

Oda DK, Parrish JD  (1981)  Ecology of commercial snappers and groupers introduced to Hawaiian
reefs.  Proceedings of the Fourth
International Coral Reef Symposium 1: 59-67.

________________________________
From: Sarah Frias-Torres <sfrias_torres at hotmail.com>
To: eblume2702 at gmail.com; reefball at reefball.com
Cc: coral list <coral-list at coral.aoml.noaa.gov>; coralreef-freeforall at yahoogroups.com
Sent: Wednesday, May 25, 2011 11:26 AM
Subject: [Coral-List] Lionfish eaten and potential new invaders RE: Frogfish eats lionfish!

Actually, it is indeed a frogfish eating a lionfish!In the original link provided by Ed Blume
http://www.scubazoo.com/updates/blog/crazy-underwater-animal-behaviour.
You have to go to the video menu bar below and click on "Giant frogfish eats poisonous lionfish".The lionfish shown there (in aquarium conditions) is, if I'm not mistaken, a red dwarf fuzzy lionfish (Dendrochirus brachypterus). They are wildly popular among aquarists because they are very easy to maintain (even easier than the red lionfish Pterois volitans/miles)
The good news is that if frogfish eat lionfish, then we should add them to the potential list of lionfish predators in the Atlantic (the list is growing little by little).The bad news is that, there are many popular lionfish species among aquarists that go beyond the now Atlantic invader Pterois volitans/miles.So one is left to wonder if there could be more "unintended releases" going of other lionfish species, even stronger and more adaptable than P. volitans
I've asked this question before in other forums but I've been dismissed rather quickly.

Sarah Frias-Torres, Ph.D. Schmidt Ocean Institute Postdoctoral FellowOcean Research & Conservation Association (ORCA) 1420 Seaway Drive, Fort Pierce, Florida 34949 USA Tel (772) 467-1600http://www.teamorca.orghttp://independent.academia.edu/SarahFriasTorres

> Date: Wed, 25 May 2011 14:21:28 -0500
> From: eblume2702 at gmail.com
> To: reefball at reefball.com
> CC: coral-list at coral.aoml.noaa.gov; coralreef-freeforall at yahoogroups.com
> Subject: Re: [Coral-List] Frogfish eats lionfish!
> 
> OMG, you're right!  Since the video was labeled "lionfish" that's what I
> saw.  I'm embarrassed.
> 
> Ed
> 
> On Wed, May 25, 2011 at 1:36 PM, Todd Barber <reefball at reefball.com> wrote:
> 
> > Sorry Ed...that is not a Lionfish.
> >
> > Thanks,
> >
> > Todd R Barber
> > Chairman, Reef Ball Foundation
> > 3305 Edwards Court
> > Greenville, NC 27858
> > 252-353-9094 (Direct)
> > 941-720-7549 (Cell & Goggle Voice)
> > toddbarber Skype
> >
> > www,reefball.org (Reef Ball Foundation)
> > www.artificialreefs.org (Designed Artificial Reefs)
> > www.reefbeach.com (Reefs for Beach Erosion)
> > www.eternalreefs.com (Memorial Reefs)
> > www.reefball.com (Reef Ball Foundation)
> >
> >
> >
> >
> > 
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> >
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