[Coral-List] Lionfish after the hurricanes?

[lad akins]

Hi Vanessa,

See Tamburello and Côté 2014 Biol Invasions 
and Smith et al 2017 also in Biol Invasions

Both document differences before and after hurricanes in the Bahamas.
Tamburello and Côté found a decrease in lionfish at their study sites after
a storm while Smith et al found a shake-up or redistribution resulting in
increases at previously culled sites.  Both were fairly shallow water sites.

We will be doing some deepwater ROV surveys in early November and looking at
lionfish populations.  Will be interesting to see.

All the best,

Lad 

****************************************************************************
Lad Akins
Director of Special Projects
Reef Environmental Education Foundation (REEF)
P O Box 370246
98300 Overseas Hwy
Key Largo  FL  33037
(305) 852-0030 work
(305) 942-7333 cell
www.REEF.org

-----Original Message-----
From: coral-list-bounces at coral.aoml.noaa.gov
[mailto:coral-list-bounces at coral.aoml.noaa.gov] On Behalf Of McDonough,
Vanessa
Sent: Tuesday, October 17, 2017 3:36 PM
To: coral-list at coral.aoml.noaa.gov
Subject: [Coral-List] Lionfish after the hurricanes?

Hi all,
At Biscayne National Park, we have noticed that after Hurricane Irma passed,
our lionfish are far fewer and much smaller than we were previously
observing.  The reef sites where we consistently observed high numbers of
lionfish now have very few (if any) lionfish.  Where we used to find fish
that averaged 35-40cm long, we are lucky to find fish that are 25cm in
length.  We have observed this across all depths and habitats in the park,
from about 20ft to 70ft depth.
I was just wondering if: a) anyone else has observed a similar trend and b)
if anyone has any insight as to where the lionfish may have gone.  Has
anyone had any deepwater observations to confirm if they retreated to deeper
waters?

Thanks,


Vanessa McDonough, Ph.D.
Fishery and Wildlife Biologist
Biscayne National Park
9700 SW 328th St
Homestead, FL 33033
ph: 305-230-1144 ext 027
fax: 305-230-1190
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