Lionfish - What We Know and What We're Learning

If you’ve read recent REEF releases, you’ve heard the news that Indo-pacific lionfish are now well established along the eastern US coast and throughout the Bahamas. REEF has been and continues to work with researchers to learn as much as we can in order to most effectively address the invasion. Since January of this year, REEF has organized and led 5 week-long projects in the Bahamas to document the extent of the invasion and gather samples and information needed by NOAA and Bahamian researchers.

  Here is what we’ve found:

REEF Lionfish Expeditions Lead to New Information

Working with leading scientists, REEF's lionfish field work is paying off in valuable information needed to address this key issue. Information from the five Bahamas projects conducted thus far this year is being used to help determine the range and extent of the lionfish invasion, as well as to address key questions on age/ growth, reproduction, genetics, parasites and habitat preference.

Red Lionfish

Red Lionfish

REEF Events 10/07

Here's what we're up to in the coming months:

October 31- November 3: DEMA Show in Orlando, FL. Come visit us at both 1133 and you could win a signed print by Tom Isgar by partaking in our DEMA raffle to help raise funds for REEF.

November 11-17: Conservation Week with Stuart Cove's Dive Bahamas in Nassau with Ned and Anna DeLoach, Bruce Purdy and Andy Dehart

South-Atlantic Divers take action on non-native fish issues

During recent months, there have been many reports of non-native indo-pacific and Red Sea fishes including the lionfish, which have been sighted in Florida, Georgia, South Carolina, and North Carolina.  The number of lionfish observed indicates that some are surviving the winter water temperatures and expanding their range. Recreational divers and snorkelers are a valuable source of information for tracking fish species including exotic fish because they are looking, taking notice of rare things, and often know what does not belong.

Intern Dives into Science and Bahamian Waters

REEF-in-Brief - July 2007

Summer is here! Throughout REEF survey regions – coastal Americas, the tropical eastern Pacific and the Caribbean and Hawaiian Islands - volunteers are diving into the Great Annual Fish Count, discovering the “wild and wooly” side of St. Vincent, helping understand the impacts of exotic invasive lionfish, and experiencing life and loss on Bonaire’s coral reefs.

REEF-in-Brief - September 2007

Hello and Happy September! We are pleased to unveil the 2008 Field Survey Schedule in this edition of REEF in Brief, as well as fill you in on some of the important field work that we have going on around the REEF survey regions. Learn about the fifth year of monitoring at the Olympic Coast National Marine Sanctuary in Washington, new and growing partnerships with the New England Aquarium and others in the northeast, a collaborative research project at the world's only undersea laboratory in Key Largo, and the results of ongoing exotic species work on lionfish in the Bahamas.

Study Reports on Hot Spot of Non-Native Marine Fishes Along Southeast Florida

Flushing your pet tropical fish in order to set it free is a bad idea. But so is releasing it into the wild.