{"id":366403,"date":"2021-11-13T03:05:53","date_gmt":"2021-11-13T00:05:53","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/en.buradabiliyorum.com\/lionfish-an-invasive-menace-terrorizing-venezuelas-coast\/"},"modified":"2021-11-13T03:05:53","modified_gmt":"2021-11-13T00:05:53","slug":"lionfish-an-invasive-menace-terrorizing-venezuelas-coast","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/buradabiliyorum.com\/en\/lionfish-an-invasive-menace-terrorizing-venezuelas-coast\/","title":{"rendered":"#Lionfish\u2014an invasive menace terrorizing Venezuela’s coast"},"content":{"rendered":"

“#Lionfish\u2014an invasive menace terrorizing Venezuela’s coast<\/strong>”<\/p>\n

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\n \"Fisherman
\n Fisherman William Alvarez cuts off the poisonous spines from a lionfish while cleaning it to prepare ceviche that he sells to tourists on the beach of Chichiviriche de la Costa, Vargas state, Venezuela, on October 30, 2021.
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The dazzling, colorful lionfish is a must for any exotic aquarium, but it has also become a major threat to the western Atlantic Ocean and the Caribbean.<\/p>\n

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“It’s beautiful, but you have to kill it,” says Mavi Escalona, a Venezuelan nurse and amateur spearfisher.<\/p>\n

“It causes a lot of damage, and it’s delicious!”<\/p>\n

The spectacular, strip<\/a>ey lionfish with its venemous spines is a carnivore originally from the Indian and Pacific oceans that has now become an invasive species in the Atlantic and Caribbean, posing a threat to their ecosystems.<\/p>\n

Known by many other names such as zebrafish, tastyfish and butterfly-cod, the lionfish can now be found from Florida to northern Brazil.<\/p>\n

And it has a voracious app<\/a>etite: eggs, small fish, crustaceans, molluscs. It is at least partly responsible\u2014alongside over-fishing, pollution and climate change\u2014for a drop in the numbers of other fish in the area.<\/p>\n

“It’s an invasive fish. It doesn’t have competitors or predators,” said Laura Gutierrez, a Venezuelan biologist now based in the Canary Islands of Spain but who studied lionfish for many years in her homeland.<\/p>\n

The lionfish was first spotted in Florida in 1985.<\/p>\n

“People that had them in their aquarium released them because they ate their other fish or it was difficult to feed them,” said Gutierrez.<\/p>\n

“It is eating all the commercial fish, crustaceans, fish and molluscs that keep reefs and corals clean, fish that eat algae.”<\/p>\n

What happens in an aquarium takes place on a much larger scale in the Caribbean, and could do so, too, in the Mediterranean, which lionfish have started to colonize.<\/p>\n

“We’re not talking about eradicating them, you can’t. It’s very difficult but we’re talking about minimizing their impact,” said Gutierrez.<\/p>\n

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\n \"Fisherman
\n Fisherman William Alvarez comes out of the water with a lionfish, an invasive species that is terrorizing Venezuela’s coast.
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Unprofitable<\/b><\/p>\n

Venezuelan authorities have organized fishing competitions and promoted eating lionfish to try to stymy their inexorable spread.<\/p>\n

“The only ones that can control them are us: fishermen,” said Willy Alvarez, 35, a dreadlocked spearfisher in Chichiviriche de la Costa, a small village between the sea and the mountains, around 60 kilometers west of Caracas.<\/p>\n

Alvarez, with his permanent smile, heads out to sea every day with his mask, snorkel and harpoon.<\/p>\n

“The first time I saw one was in 2008 or 2009 … I caught it to put in an aquarium,” he said after climbing back on board his boat, a lionfish skewered on the end of his spear.<\/p>\n

“Their reproduction is incredible: 30,000 to 40,000 eggs every three to four days.”<\/p>\n

He catches one every day and turns it into a ceviche\u2014a marinated raw fish dish\u2014to sell on the beach to passers by.<\/p>\n

It’s not a very profitable business. To produce one kilogram of ceviche, which sells for $20, he needs to catch three kilograms of lionfish, meaning dozens of free dives\u2014each one lasting around 40 seconds. And then there’s the time taken to prepare the dish.<\/p>\n

“It’s a lot of effort. I can’t live off that but one lionfish less is thousands of little fish it won’t eat. It’s satisfying to help the ecosystem,” he said.<\/p>\n

‘Better than lobster’<\/b><\/p>\n

A decade ago, the lionfish was still unknown off the Venezuelan coast and its sudden appearance caused fear amongst many locals.<\/p>\n

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\n \"Lionfish\u2014an
\n A tourist eats ceviche prepared with lionfish on the beach of Chichiviriche de la Costa, Vargas state, Venezuela.
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It’s curious beauty and venemous spines that can cause sharp pain or even paralysis have contributed to the mystery around what many locals call the devilfish.<\/p>\n

Some even think they are spirits.<\/p>\n

Unsurprisingly, it is little eaten here.<\/p>\n

“We have to involve the local community,” said Gutierrez.<\/p>\n

“We have to explain what the fish is. We have to explain that it’s edible, that it’s tasty.”<\/p>\n

The spines and skin can also be used to make jewelry.<\/p>\n

“If we create demand, we’ll ensure more are taken out of the sea and that will help limit the population,” she added.<\/p>\n

“Delicious” exclaimed Genesis Palma, a 20-year-old cashier, tasting lionfish for the first time in Chichiriviche.<\/p>\n

“Lionfish is the best,” added Juan Carlos Gutierrez, one of Alvarez’s clients.<\/p>\n

“It’s better than lobster, better than caviar!”<\/p>\n\n

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Tool predicts which native fish species are most at risk from lionfish predators\n <\/p><\/div>\n

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\n \u00a9 2021 AFP<\/p>\n

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Citation<\/strong>:
\n Lionfish\u2014an invasive menace terrorizing Venezuela’s coast (2021, November 12)
\n retrieved 13 November 2021
\n from https:\/\/phys.org\/news<\/a>\/2021-11-lionfishan-invasive-menace-terrorizing-venezuela.html<\/p>\n

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\n part may be reproduced without the written permission. The content is provided for information purposes only.<\/p><\/div>\n<\/p><\/div>\n