The Lionfish Problem is Getting Worse

The epidemic of invasive lionfish in the Caribbean runs rampant, as indicated by the recent state-wide Florida lionfish culling competition, where a record number, 31,773, of the invasive fish were caught, 1200 more than last year. Baye Beauford of Jacksonville, in the northeastern part of the state, won the recreational division for the second year in a row with 915 kills. He said he didn't even try.

The competitors had about three-and-a-half months to catch as many lionfish as possible, doing their part to help eliminate the species from Florida's waters, where they are proliferating. A native of the Indo-Pacific, they were first seen off the eastern coast in 1985. Other than the spear-fishers, lionfish have no natural predators in Caribbean or Florida waters, though there is hope that groupers, barracuda, morays, and sharks will learn to feed on them, regardless of their poisonous spines.