more than just a pretty face

A few years ago, I went to the Georgia Aquarium for my 22^nd birthday. I saw some Spider Crabs straight out of a Steven King novel, a pair of Beluga Whales I secretly wanted to set free, some crazy little seahorsies, and Lion Fish. It was difficult to get good pictures through the thick glass, but the Lion Fish pictures turned out well.

These predatory creatures have creamy white scales streaked by bronze and caramel stripes that decorate their fins and eyes as well. They are attention-grabbing; spikes and stark patterns often suggest that there’s more than just a pretty face at work.

These fish are highly venomous. Their dorsal fins have pokey spines that stick out the top. Inside each spine is a reserve of venom that leaks into any tissue the spine may puncture. Divers that get stuck by these guys experience a host of symptoms that include general pain, local paralysis, breathing suppression, dizziness, vomiting, fever, diarrhea. People rarely die from stings, but children and people with certain allergies certainly can die.

So why am I telling you about Lion Fish? Well, they are wreaking havoc on our Eastern seaboard. Lion Fish are native to the Pacific, but thanks to careless humans, they are now present in the Atlantic. They first appeared in the late eighties, early nineties. Some think that maybe the six captive Lion Fish kept that escaped during the destruction of a Florida aquarium during Hurricane Andrew established the invasive population. Others hypothesize that bored and irresponsible exotic pet owners released their Lion Fish into Atlantic waters.

Regardless of how it happened, they are swimming rampant now. They have no natural predators in the Atlantic, and even potential predators take one look at those spikes and are all “HELL no.” They’re gobbling up native species of fish to the point of threatening their survival. I saw a deal on TV recently with Jeff Corwin where they took a manned submersible down to past 400 feet, where they found Lion Fish. That’s ridiculous- no one thought they’d inhabit depths past 200 feet.

When they encountered the bad boy hunting on a reef at 400+ feet, they speared him and put him in a net to take back to the lab. I imagined children all across the country simultaneously gasping at Jeff Corwin participating in the killing such an impressive animal. But he explained it well, noting that it’s not the Lion Fish’s fault, and it is not a “bad” animal. But it doesn’t belong. As guardians of the Lion Fish and every other species of animal on earth, it’s our job to manage them.

They hauled the Lion Fish up to the surface and cut it open. They found six different species of fish in its stomach- valuable information that can help us figure out how to save our Atlantic ecosystem.

It’s easy to form an emotional dislike, almost hatred, of invasive species. But it’s not like they’re little mustache-twirling villains out to destroy the world. They’re animals, and they’re doing what they know to do. Good practice biology tells us to marvel at all life, even invasive Lion Fish. With the big picture in mind, managing and exterminating populations is part of our role as their protectors.