Lionfish photo taken 2006 in Bimini, Bahamas

For those divers who spend most of our bottom time in the Caribbean, Bahamas, and Southeast coast of the US, the word Lionfish might make you cringe a little. Seeing them underwater tears you apart – half of you wants to run over and stab it to death, while the other half whips out a camera to take a picture of those elegant fins.

I’ve spent about a year and a half listening to people rave about this problem – from experts in the field to passionate divers – and I’m going to try to set the record straight about how the problem started, what’s being done to try to curb the invasion, and if we have any hope for the future. And I’m open to arguments – I’m no expert, just a good listener.

I forget that some people have no idea what I’m talking about, so let me start over. In the early 1990s a handful of sightings of Pacific Lionfish were reported off the coast of Florida. No one thought much of it, aquarium releases, ballast water, they’ll just go away. Until they didn’t.

I spent from 2003-2006 diving daily in Bimini, Bahamas and didn’t see one – out of sights out of mind. In May of 2006 I was DM’ing on a liveaboard in Nassau and my divers came up talking about this crazy fish they saw and showed me a picture. From that day on it seemed like they were everywhere. Bahamas, Florida, even down to the Turks and Caicos. But it’s just a fish, right? No big deal.

In the last two years I’ve learned differently. I’ve spoken extensively with officials at Reef.org, corresponded with some folks at NOAA, and done some of my own research and the truth is scary. According to research and DNA testing, most of the Lionfish that are found all over the Caribbean now can be traced back to about 9 individuals, probably released in the early 1990s (possibly destroyed personal aquariums from Hurricane Andrew in ‘92). The first few years, they’d been reproducing quietly, amassing an army.Then as the years went by they began to appear in greater numbers, firmly establishing themselves on the other side of the world from where they belong. Nothing on this side of the world knows to eat them, and they have quite an appetite – a recipe for disaster in the delicate balance of the marine food chain.

Even in their larval stage, nothing eats these guys. Most fish spawn close to the reef, spewing their gametes a few feet up in the water column, easy meals for egg-eating predators. Lionfish actually spawn almost at the surface of the water, far from where these think to look for tasty treats like fertilized eggs. Females produce 2,000-30,000 eggs in a set of mucus-sealed sacs which guarantee high fertilization rates, and of those fertilized eggs about 80% survive due to low predation of the eggs at the surface.

Post-larval, there are anecdotal reports of specimens found in the stomachs of a handful of Nassau and Tiger groupers, and rumored Lemon sharks, but compared to the Lionfish’s insatiable appetite, that’s not keeping up. In the Pacific there is the species diversity and abundance to support their voracious appetite, but not in the Atlantic. To boot, the Lionfish are quite fond of the taste of our own reef predators in juvenile form: the same groupers and snappers that could potentially prey on the Lionfish later in life.

Their range is quite astounding. Since 1994 Lionfish have been reported as far north as Rhode Island and only a few months ago there were first-time sightings in Bonaire, Curacao and St. Croix. In the Bahamas there are reefs where you’re seeing dozens of lionfish in one small area – and little else in the way of other fish! According to this map from REEF and NOAA there’s not a whole lot of Lionfish-free Caribbean left.

Ok, great, so they’re taking over. Now what? We can’t undo what’s been done; eradicating this species from the Atlantic is at this point impossible. But can we get the invasion under control? Maybe.

1) Report all Lionfish sightings. At REEF.org or NOAA or both. If collection is possible in the area you’re diving, make it happen.

2) Support legislation limiting the import of non-native species to your environment. US residents see HR 669

3) Spread the word. Lots of divers know nothing about this and the more you talk about it the bigger the response will be.

4) I’ve heard one suggestion that exploits the irony of the human-environment interaction and makes me giggle. We’re pretty good at driving species to extinction, right? So why not use that ability to our advantage for once. Promote Lionfish as a delicacy in restaurants, make up some story that the venomous spines enhance fertility (once the venom is removed of course…), something that will encourage the overfishing of Lionfish. Of course this is dependent on finding an efficient fishing method that only catches Lionfish.

For more information, visit REEF.org, read this article by Hare and Whitfield, or use your google-fu.

Resources:

Hare and Whitfield 2003. An integrated assessment of the introduction of lionfish (Pterois volitans/miles complex) to the western Atlantic Ocean. NOAA Technical Memorandum NOS NCCOS 2. 21 pp.

Smithsonian Marine Station at Fort Pierce: http://www.sms.si.edu/IRLSpec/Pterois_volitans.htm

NCCOS/NOAA

REEF.org Lionfish Invasion Program

Whales worldwide will head for the deep, like this diving Tonga humpback, as they attempt to evade Japanese, Icelandic, and Norwegian harpoons over the coming months.

Paul J. Mila Photo © Tonga, South Pacific

Whales, already endangered from years of ruthless hunting, are facing new threats to their very existence on our planet. Japan, Norway and Iceland currently lead efforts to subvert, and ultimately overturn, the International Whaling Commission’s commercial whaling ban.

All species, including humpback, fin, and minke, are slated for attack by Japan, Iceland, Norway, and several other whaling countries. Strangely, even blue whale meat, identified by DNA analysis, appears in Japanese meat markets, despite Japanese denials that their “scientific” whaling program targets severely threatened blue whales.

Attempting to overturn the IWC ban on commercial whaling, Japan has even resorted to bribing small island nations, through “economic development grants,” to gain their votes on the IWC. In the case of Tonga, the attempted bribery has a more overt purpose: to gain permission to slaughter humpbacks in the Tongan whale sanctuary, where humpbacks give birth and mate. To its credit, Tonga has resisted.

Japan resorts to political and diplomatic, as well as economic, pressure to influence more economically developed nations. Japan’s most recent success in this area has been cowing the Australian Government into inhibiting Sea Shepherd’s ability to fight Japanese whaling in Australia’s own backyard, the Southern Ocean Whale Sanctuary.

When all else fails, Japan simply exploits a loophole in the IWC ban, permitting limited whaling for “scientific purposes.” However, this is nothing more than an obscene ruse to cover up Japan’s commercial whaling activities. Legitimate scientists know how to conduct non-lethal research on whales.
Noted commercial photographer Jeremy Sutton-Hibbert, on assignment with Greenpeace International in the Southern Ocean, risked his life in front of the Japanese whaler Yushin Maru’s deadly harpoons, taking the photos for his dramatic story, Death Of A Whale. It shows Japanese “scientists” aboard the Yushin Maru, preparing a Minke whale for their brand of “scientific research”.
Click on the title or link below, to read Jeremy’s gut-wrenching first-hand account of witnessing this bloody carnage, up close and personal:
Death of a Whale http://www.epuk.org/First-Person/15/death-of-a-whale

For additional information about Jeremy and his work, please visit his website:

http://www.jeremysuttonhibbert.com/

Many people, myself included, thought killing a whale was a quick proposition with an explosive harpoon. Jeremy shows through dramatic photos and moving words, this is not always the case.
As you read Jeremy’s account of whaling’s brutal reality, consider that the suffering creature on the end of the harpoon is an intelligent, sentient being, possessing a brain more complex than a human brain, which lives in social groups with family bonds. Setting aside arguments over the debatable validity of “sustainable whaling” (estimating a theoretical number of whales that can be killed annually without extincting the species), ask yourself whether it is morally and ethically permissible to kill such an advanced being.

WHAT WE CAN DO:
1. First, the obvious: don’t purchase whale products, or support organizations that traffic in whale products.

2. Contact your local Congressional Representative and let him/her know your feelings on this issue, and that you want the U.S. to vote in favor of extending the IWC commercial whaling ban.

3. Let the whaling nations know your thoughts about their actions. Google a country name (Japan, Norway, or Iceland), along with the word “Consulate” or “Embassy”. You’ll get a list of cities having consulates or embassies, with contact information. Select one near you and send a message.

4. Support anti-whaling conservationist organizations, such as Greenpeace, www.greenpeace.org
and Sea Shepherd, www.seashepherd.org

Sea Shepherd Conservation Organization, headed by Captain Paul Watson, is more confrontational than many conservationist organizations. Japan has proclaimed the Sea Shepherds are international outlaws, pirates, and terrorists, even as it slaughters endangered whales in the designated Southern Ocean Whale Sanctuary. The Sea Shepherds interfere with Japan’s illegal whaling activities using various aggressive tactics, such as ramming Japanese harpoon vessels conducting whaling operations.

In Conclusion, some good news, and reason for hope:
A November 11, 2009 Online New York Times article by Jonathan Leake reports that blue whales might be coming back! These 100-foot giants of the sea numbered between 350,000 and 400,000 in 1900, but human whaling reduced their population to approximately 5,000 by 1960, with almost no recovery during the past 50 years. Recent blue whale sightings in areas where they had not been seen for many years have given scientists reason for optimism. However, the story indicates it is still premature to draw a final conclusion regarding the blue whales’ prospects. But one point is certain: for the species to recover, the commercial whaling ban must continue.
Click the title to read the full article: Blue Whale Comeback

I had lunch with one of them and just chatted about his research on camouflage techniques. Somehow frogfish came up and I asked him if he knew why it took them so long to change their colors to camouflage themselves, versus groupers and octopus and so many other species of fish that can switch in a flash. He looked at me dumbfounded and said he never realized they could change color, to which I replied “We have one here on Saba that’s changing from yellow to green as we speak…!”

He shook his head and started praising us – the recreational divers. We are the ones that see so much more than the scientists do. We gather more information, we see the changes, we see the interactions, we watch the oceans transform. We are the world’s ambassadors to the oceans.

It got me thinking: just because we’re “recreational divers” doesn’t mean that we don’t pay attention. But I think we do need to make a conscious effort to be more involved in each of our dives.

The majority of divers are vacation divers – they leave their grueling office job to go somewhere warm where they can shut their brains off and play with the fish. But our brains aren’t really turned off. And with a little engagement we can take a normal every day dive and turn it into a rich learning experience that could possibly help save an ecosystem.

But first you need to build a knowledge base. Knowing that the little black and white striped fish like to chase off divers and leave little hickeys on their legs if they get too close isn’t useful. Knowing that those fish are a type of damselfish called a Sergeant Major and that those big purple patches they are swimming around are egg beds that they are protecting – that’s better information. When you started diving one of the first things you probably learned about were cleaning stations. First someone pointed out those funny-looking purple shrimp to you and told you they were Pederson cleaner shrimp.

Now we had a name for a face. And when we floated nearby for a while we noticed that all kinds of fish would come to these shrimp and let them crawl around in their mouths and gills. The more we watched, the more we learned. Now when you see a parrotfish stop and angle its head up you look for the little tiny shrimp or cleaner fish nearby because you know that posture is a signal to the cleaning station saying “I’m not going to eat you, I just have an itch.” And we know that instead of posturing, Groupers will darken their colors to black as the approach, as if sending the same signal in a different language.

Just a few weeks ago I was astounded to see a Peacock Flounder displaying the most electric shade of turquoise on its spots that I had ever seen. I followed it for a few feet because I was absolutely mesmerized by the color. And right before my eyes the flounder sailed into a cleaning station and the Pederson Shrimp started crawling all over it. Now that was a pretty clear signal!

When we know what we are seeing underwater we can then understand what is supposed to be there – what species, what behaviors are normal.

When a sudden change happens we are the first to see it and recognize its value, from a rebound in the local grouper population to an invasive species showing up in our backyard. So pay more attention on your next dive – whether it is your 2059th dive or your 4th – and make a point to learn something. Find a fish you don’t know the name for and look it up, or stake out a cleaning station and watch all the different species that pay a visit. The more we learn, the more we ask questions, and the more we want to know.

“Fins to the left . . . Fins to the right, and you’re the only bait in town.”

When divers encounter sharks they usually have good stories to tell. Unfortunately, it’s a pretty rare occurrence these days. The need for shark conservation is critical, for reasons we’ll discuss here.

A contributing factor to the severe decline in shark populations is that many people have a negative perception about sharks. Barbara Bridges, President & CEO of Stealth Pilot Productions, and a member of the LinkedIn Group Ocean Champions, explains why sharks suffer from a serious public relations problem:

“In the past twenty years television specials have contributed much toward saving wilderness and wild species–including establishing the need for marine protected areas. The lamentable exception to these preservation efforts are sharks–the wolves of the sea. Discovery Channel’s ‘Shark Week’ still uses a highly exploitative, blood-in-the-water approach to filming these Alpha predators. Sharks are just as necessary to maintaining a healthy marine environment as plankton, coral, the smaller species of food fish, or whales. Discovery Channel, while ostensibly ‘celebrating all wildlife’, annually contributes to countless shark deaths worldwide by promulgating widespread panic and fear.”

The story of one particular shark typifies their plight.

Diving in Cozumel, my dive operator Alison told me about a young nurse shark that she thought had been born with a deformed nub of its front dorsal fin (nurse sharks have a second dorsal fin, back toward the tail). Hence, Alison named him Stubby. Over the years we watched Stubby grow from a 4-foot youngster into an 8-foot adult. Fully grown nurse sharks can attain 14-feet.

Diving Cozumel’s Yucab Reef one morning, we were preparing to ascend when Alison spotted Stubby below us, hunting along the coral. We descended and watched him corner his prey in a small cave. Our group of four divers formed a semi-circle at the cave opening. We watched Stubby thrash his long tail, forcing himself into the narrow opening to devour whatever he had trapped, probably a lobster. After several minutes Stubby’s body shuddered, then relaxed as he consumed his meal. When he wiggled backward out of the cave, he was sporting a “remora beard.”

Stubby was startled to see a bunch of bubble-blowers around him. He turned quickly and I shot another photo (below) as he swam away, right between my legs! I was sure glad his dorsal fin was “stubby”!

One day a couple of years ago, Alison told me she had seen Stubby trailing a fishing leader from his lower jaw. Shortly afterward, Alison never saw him again. Perhaps as an adult, Stubby had expanded his hunting range out of Cozumel’s protected park, and had been taken by a fisherman. Or, Stubby might have been captured by an illegal poacher within the park.

I recently contacted Alison for background on this article. She hopes Stubby migrated north, and is happily swimming somewhere else. But Alison said, “I do not know why once reaching full adulthood he would begin to gradually move northward. There is a lot that I don’t understand about nurse shark behaviour; I just observe. The only thing for certain is that I really, really miss Stubby ”

The most likely scenario, however, is that Stubby’s fate has been the fate of too many other sharks: overfishing. In a mere 30 years, humans have reduced the world-wide shark population by 90%. As the demand in Asia for shark-fin soup and other shark by-products increases, the pressure on their dwindling population intensifies.

THE SCOREBOARD: Millions of sharks (conservative estimates range between 10 and 20 million; higher estimates range from 70 to 100 million) are killed annually by long-line commercial fishermen seeking tuna and other fish, drowned in gill nets and drift nets, intentionally slaughtered by shark finners, or killed in shark sporting tournaments and by other “recreational” fishing activity.

Sharks, on the other hand, kill approximately 10 humans per year. That’s less than die from lightening, bee stings, and food allergies. If you shout “SHARK!” on a crowded beach you’ll clear the water in a minute. Yell “PEANUTS!” in a restaurant and I doubt much would happen.

A 2008 NY Times article illustrated the threat to sharks:

NY Times Article

The key point to consider: Extinction is a one-way street; there is no re-wind and no replay!

WHAT CAN WE DO?

First, the obvious: Don’t eat or purchase shark products.

Most important: Support efforts to ban shark fishing. Many countries, such as Palau, have done this.

Story: Palau Bites Back

Websites where you can get more information:

Shark Conservation Act of 2009

Ban Shark Finning

Shark Alliance Press Release

Shark Conservation Society

To find additional websites about shark conservation, Google “Shark Decline”.

Paul’s underwater pictures have been featured in magazines, on scuba diving web sites, and shown at the Mind, Body, Spirit Festival in Australia.
Following the advice of writers who said to write about what you know and like, he has incorporated the ocean and diving as the core of his writing, which includes three novels: DANGEROUS WATERS, WHALES’ ANGELS, and FIREWORKS.

Diving in the same waters as the characters in his books has enabled him to write with realism, and to describe for non-diving readers the beauty and wonder of exploring our undersea world.

He and his family reside in Carle Place, New York, a small town on Long Island.
You can contact Paul via email: paul@paulmila.com and visit his websites: www.milabooks.com and www.cozumelisparadise.com