Lionfish Now Invading Coastline of Alabama

Lionfish photo by Jens Petersen

Well, isn’t this just a kick in the pants… The invasive, not to mention sneaky, lionfish has been spotted off of Alabama and Pensacola this past week, which is confirming the belief that the lionfish have made a full scale invasion of the Gulf Of Mexico, despite the BP oil spill fiasco, and are now a danger to other sea faring critters in the area.

Researchers think the sneaky little buggers made their way into U.S. Waters because of the aquarium trade.

Scuba divers got together to try and capture these invading lionfish in the Florida Keys National Marine Sanctuary this past Saturday and over 500 of the suckers were reeled in.

In studies performed in the Bahamas, these tiny invaders have been eating up anywhere up to sixty percent of the fish native to the waters and coral reefs where they were making their home.

“I am surprised it took so long,” commented head of the Dauphin Island Sea Lab, George Crozier. “The way they’ve established themselves along the Atlantic, there really wasn’t any doubt they would arrive here… It was just a question of when.”

So, lionfish are apparently here to stay, and despite our rather inhospitable welcome, we are inviting them to our restaurant dinner plates as the main course, they appear to be flourishing where they should not be found in the first place.

Of course this pattern will continue to increase, and in the near future, perhaps they will be like the cockroaches of the sea, impossible to get rid of, and a huge pain in the backside.