11 ENVIRONMENT/ THE EXPRESS NEWSPAPER/ WEDNESDAY, 10TH OCTOBER, 2018
THE LION KING OF THE SEA
An insight of a new and voracious predator native to the Indo Pacific, but spreading like wildfire to
our Caribbean seas. Who are they and what are they capable of?
ASIA HUNTE
What Trinbagonian hasn’t
gone to our beautiful coral reef in
Buccoo, Tobago? Don’t you just
love to take a leisurely ride on
our glass bottomed boats and
look at the beautiful corals of all
shapes and sizes and the
hundreds of aquatic animals that
live in them, all in harmony?
The fish in our coral reefs
are in danger due to a new predator
on the block, the Lionfish. This
newcomer, who is native to the Indo
Pacific coast but is spreading in
number to our Caribbean seas, is
posing a large threat to coral reef
ecosystems. They have been
introduced to the ocean about 15
years ago off the coast of Florida,
details still not known. According to
Whitfield and Al (2002), lionfish
have been seen in Bermuda, Rhode
Island and even Jamaica, spreading
along the Caribbean coast.
These fish are mostly red,
with white, black and cream stripes
throughout their bodies. Their
pectoral fins, which are large
spikes, protrude from their backs.
On their backs, they also have
spiky rays which are venomous.
This helps them to kill and capture
their prey easier and faster. These
fishes are known to be very eye-
catching and known for their
venomous spikes and special
tentacles. Is it a beauty or beast?
Or maybe both?
They mainly feed on small
fishes, invertebrates and
crustaceans. Before the
introduction of these predators, the
ecosystems in the ocean had a
stable food web with proper feeding
relationships, contributing to a
stable ecosystem. Unfortunately,
the introduction of the lionfish has
caused a disruption in these food
chains as they are large predators
and fed on smaller fishes which
were prey to other animals, or even
predators. They are voracious and
hungry! Researchers from Bahamas
have done many experiments of the
predatory rates and prey
consumption of these animals on
their local fishes and coral reef
ecosystems.
In one particular research
experiment, Isabelle M. Cote and
Aleksandra Maljkovic studied coral
reefs in the Bahamas and how their
fishes are affected by these lionfish
and got striking results. They
documented the lionfish’s
behaviour while predating, their
time spent looking for prey and
their predation attempts. They were
seen to be active predators in the
day and due to restrictions, the
researchers were not allowed to
observe them from dusk to dawn
but due to other scientific reports,
these fish are known to be
crepuscular or nocturnal predators,
so it can be assumed that predation
is also high during the night.
According to Cote and Maljkovic,
they were seen to hunt
approximately 19 fish species, in at
least 9 families, with 4 of these
species already being preyed upon
Photo by: Christian Schlamann
by other predators. These insatiable
animals were seen to have to have
a variety of hunting tactics by using
their beautiful, but dangerous
pectoral fins to attract their prey, or
they waited patiently until their
prey was close enough so they can
attack (sit and wait predation and
used cleaning stations to prey on
other fishes.
From these results, Cote
and Maljkovic state that the high
predation levels can eventually lead
to a sharp decline in fish
populations if not already. If it
manages to reach our reefs, our
fish would be in a lot of danger.
Our poor fish!
However, strategic but possible
methods can be used to decrease
the number of these fishes.
Scientists are encouraging persons
to fish and hunt these animals, as
they are very tasty and great to eat.
What Trini doesn’t like a good
stewed fish and provision! If you
are concerned about our coral reef
ecosystems, add lionfish to your
diet to help decrease the number of
these predators in our waters. If
they continue, Caribbean reef fish
will face a dark and grim future.
Photo: Ahsan C.