Genetic tests show that there weren't many. No one knows how the fish arrived. They might have escaped into Florida's waters in 1992, when Hurricane Andrew capsized many transport boats. Or they might have been imported as an aquarium curiosity and later released.
But soon those lionfish began to breed a dynasty. They laid hundreds of gelatinous eggs that released microscopic lionfish larvae. The larvae drifted on the current. They grew into adults, capable of reproducing every 55 days and during all seasons of the year. The fish, unknown in the Americas 30 years ago, settled on reefs, wrecks and ledges. And that's when scientists, divers and fishermen began to notice.
In 2000, a recreational diver saw two tropical lionfish clinging improbably to the submerged ruins of a tanker off the coast of North Carolina, nearly 140 feet below the surface. She alerted the National Oceanographic and Atmospheric Administration, which started tracking lionfish sightings in the Atlantic. Within two years, the fish had been seen in Georgia, Florida, Bermuda and the Bahamas. They are now known to live from Rhode Island to Belize.
"I've never seen any fish colonize so quickly over such a vast geographic range," says Paula Whitfield, a fisheries biologist at NOAA.
Lionfish are the first exotic species to invade coral reefs.
Read more: http://www.smithsonianmag.com/science-nature/Invasion-of-the-Lionfish.html#ixzz2iMfUPHG2
Follow us: @SmithsonianMag on Twitter
But soon those lionfish began to breed a dynasty. They laid hundreds of gelatinous eggs that released microscopic lionfish larvae. The larvae drifted on the current. They grew into adults, capable of reproducing every 55 days and during all seasons of the year. The fish, unknown in the Americas 30 years ago, settled on reefs, wrecks and ledges. And that's when scientists, divers and fishermen began to notice.
In 2000, a recreational diver saw two tropical lionfish clinging improbably to the submerged ruins of a tanker off the coast of North Carolina, nearly 140 feet below the surface. She alerted the National Oceanographic and Atmospheric Administration, which started tracking lionfish sightings in the Atlantic. Within two years, the fish had been seen in Georgia, Florida, Bermuda and the Bahamas. They are now known to live from Rhode Island to Belize.
"I've never seen any fish colonize so quickly over such a vast geographic range," says Paula Whitfield, a fisheries biologist at NOAA.
Lionfish are the first exotic species to invade coral reefs.
Read more: http://www.smithsonianmag.com/science-nature/Invasion-of-the-Lionfish.html#ixzz2iMfUPHG2
Follow us: @SmithsonianMag on Twitter
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