Lad Akins, REEF Director of Special Projects, recently co-authored a paper summarizing work documenting feeding patterns of lionfish in the Bahamas. Understanding the predation behavior of this invasive species is important to be able to predict and mitigate the effects of Indo-Pacific lionfish (Pterois volitans) on Caribbean fish communities. Lad and his colleagues at Simon Frasier University studied the activity levels and prey consumption rates of lionfish on 12 shallow coral reefs in the Bahamas in relation to time of day and prey availability. Lionfish predation rates and activity levels were significantly higher during crepuscular (dawn and dusk) periods than at mid-day. Available prey fish biomass was highest at dawn but lower at mid-day and dusk, suggesting that lionfish predation activity is not limited by prey availability alone. The calculated average daily prey consumption rates was ~3 times the estimates obtained from studies of captive lionfish in their native range and of invasive lionfish observed only during the day. These results will help to predict more accurately the effect of predation by invasive lionfish on native reef fish communities. The study was published in the scientific journal Marine Ecology Progress Series, Vol. 433. A summary of this and all other scientific publications that have included REEF data and programs are given on the Publications Resources page, at http://www.reef.org/db/publications.