COCOA BEACH, Fla. — Octover 26, 2013 — The state of Florida has declared war on lionfish — a pernicious invader from the Indo-Pacific — and is recruiting troops both domestic and foreign to join the fight.
That was the tone of the Florida Fish and Wildlife Conservation Commission’s Lionfish Summit held Tuesday through Thursday — a meeting of about 100 divers, resources managers, scientists and conservationists eagerly forming battle plans to attack the enemy.
“This is really a war,” said RJ de Pedro Muñoz, operations director of Proyecto Pterois (Lionfish Project) in Puerto Rico. “We need to know what is our enemy doing. Where are the troops?”
By all accounts, lionfish is a formidable foe, presenting daunting challenges to combatants on the front lines.
Since the first Florida sighting of what was probably an abandoned aquarium pet in Dania Beach in 1985, the candy-striped predators with toxin-tipped fins have spread as far as the northern Gulf of Mexico, mid- and south Atlantic, and throughout the Caribbean and Bahamas.
Read the full story from the Miami Herald