Lionfish Letters from the Field

NEWS FROM REEF
By Lad Akins, Director of Special Projects
Nassau, Bahamas - July 30, 2008 -- Up early this morning and readying for another big day on the lionfish front. As part of an Associated Press story on the lionfish, I am joined by Andy Dehart and Lisa Mitchell here in Nassau to shoot footage of our lionfish work and do interviews for an AP television segment. We'll be live collecting fish, tagging a few and talking about the current research being conducted by REEF, NOAA, Simon Fraser University and Oregon State University - research showing that the lionfish appear to be having severe impacts on our native fish populations. To summarize, stomach contents show over 50 species of prey items including fish and invertebrates; lionfish are eating the prey faster than they can naturally recover and they can reduce recruitment of juveniles to reefs by 80%! It is a scary picture.

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