While in Roatan Scuba Diving at Coco View Resort in April there was a concerted effort going on to Kill the Lion Fish. They were deputizing divers to join the hunt and training them to kill. All this to restore the reef back to what it was like in roughly 1975.
The attempt to eradicate Lion Fish is hubris of the first order. It won’t succeed. The reefs were never a balanced ecosystem. Besides I can’t think of an example where eradicating an invasive species has been successful. Can you?
Yes Lion Fish are an invasive species. And yes they are predators of the first order on other reef fish. But so are honey bees in the Americas, Manatee in North America and Rabbits in Australia. Invasive doesn’t automatically mean bad. The invasive species is benefiting from having this new territory to expand into. And who can predict what the outcome will be of small changes in complex systems.
In the 1980’s sharks were the bad guys. They were considered dangerous and whenever they could divers killed them. Now we try to live in harmony with them. We could be as wrong about the Lion Fish as we were about the sharks.
What about trying to keep ecosystems in balance? This is a myth. Every creature, including humans, is trying to gain advantageous access to the available resources and the winners in any ecosystem are constantly changing. How can we think it is okay to condemn the Lion Fish so the Clown Fish can live when we know so little.
We have been on the reef as observers for less than a hundred years. Reefs have existed for more than 100 million years. We know nothing yet. But we have to do something. Why? I’m speculating here: Because without reef fish there will be less scuba divers and therefore less need for the resorts, boats and employees that depend on the divers.
I’m not going to pretend that I’m going to change any minds about the Lion Fish slaughter. Too many people have a vested interest in keeping the reefs the way they were. The solution is to start a Lion Fish Sanctuary where Lion Fish are allowed to evolve as are their prey and their predators. Nature will find a way to make all of this work. If you agree make a donation to our kick starter page.
End the Lion Fish Slaughter.