Bay Islands has new invasive species

[Doc]

Lion Fish have been seen, but The Roatan Marine Park reports in it's newsletter http://www.roatanmarinepark.com/Newsletter pdfs/2009 Newsletters/January 2009 newsletter - FINAL.pdf

As if that isn't enough to be concerned about, the Red-Tipped Sea
Goddess, native to the Pacific tropics, was spotted by Peter Wilcox in
Turquoise Bay last month. It is thought that these may have arrived in
Roatán in ship ballast water. To our knowledge this is the first confirmed
case of an invasive marine species on Roatan's reefs.
Please inform Roatan Marine Park of any further sightings.

Red-Tipped Sea Goddess
invasive species from Pacific,
spotted in Turquoise Bay,
RoatáÏ about a month ago.
Photo by Peter Wilcox
______________________________________________________________________
______________________________________________________________________
and from a different file....
This one still has us puzzled:

Seen two years ago on the South Side of Roatan, no one has stepped forward to give the taxonomy....

 

[DeepBlueResort]

Hi All

The Red Tipped Sea Goddess has been in the Bay Islands for a long time, here is an article of it in Utila 3 years ago and the original sighting was in the year 2000, so there have been records for approx 9 years. The Sea Slug Forum - Glossodoris sedna They have also been long time residents of Florida and the Bahamas.

 

[rtbmediver]

Quoting from the RMP news letter:

" First spotted in Florida
several years ago, sightings have gradually spread southwestwards towards
the Meso-American Barrier Reef. Sadly, the first confirmed Meso-American
report came last month from GloverÃÔ Reef in Belize.

If you see one of these animals please report it to the
RoatáÏ Marine Park Office, with GPS location if possible.
Lionfish remain in a small territory once
established, and should be relatively easy
to find once initially located. Please DO NOT try to exterminate these fish
on your own. Besides their radiating spines being extremely venomous, the
RMP needs to carry out proper documentation of sightings prior to
removing these invaders. This will assist in regional efforts to track the
expansion of this species."

As I read it, to date there have been No Confirmed sightings of Lionfish in Roatan or the Bay Islands.

FYI: This was posted to the coral-list Feb 01, 2009

Unfortunately, we have 2 lionfish in a tank at the Little Cayman Research
Centre. Divers caught them last week.
It has been an entire year since the first sighting on Little Cayman.
Several (6) more fish are being reported on the reef in Little Cayman.
Fish are being sighted in Bloody Bay Marine Park which is located on the
north side of the island and on the south side of the island as well.
The local Department of Environment is monitoring the situation.

CCMI completed a rapid assessment in August 2008 and found no lionfish. We
have a rapid assessment planned for August 2009.
Please visit our website if anyone is interested in participating.

Carrie Manfrino
Central Caribbean Marine Institute
PO Box 1461
Princeton, NJ 08540
http://reefresearch.org

:cool2:

 

[drbill]

Hope you have a better outcome with them than we've had with the invasive kelp Sargassum filicinum out here on Catalina.

 

[leadweight]

There have been frequent sightings of obeseatus cruiseshipatupus on Roatan.

On a more serious note, I saw a Lionfish in the Southern Bahamas in August.

 

[retroflex]

The estimation I've heard, is that Lionfish are likely to be spotted off Roatan/Utila within the next year, but that there have been no confirmed sightings in the area for the time being.

 

[DeepBlueResort]

Hi

Yes that is correct, that is the estimation we have heard as well, we are on the lookout.

 

[mascarim]

I was in little cayman last week and i actually caught two lionfish and six others were caught in the same time period. This is becoming a serious issue in the Caribbean.
In addition, encrusting Mat Tunicates in deeper waters are becoming more of a threat to coral reefs.

Quoting from the RMP news letter:

" First spotted in Florida
several years ago, sightings have gradually spread southwestwards towards
the Meso-American Barrier Reef. Sadly, the first confirmed Meso-American
report came last month from GloverÃÔ Reef in Belize.

If you see one of these animals please report it to the
RoatáÏ Marine Park Office, with GPS location if possible.
Lionfish remain in a small territory once
established, and should be relatively easy
to find once initially located. Please DO NOT try to exterminate these fish
on your own. Besides their radiating spines being extremely venomous, the
RMP needs to carry out proper documentation of sightings prior to
removing these invaders. This will assist in regional efforts to track the
expansion of this species."

As I read it, to date there have been No Confirmed sightings of Lionfish in Roatan or the Bay Islands.

FYI: This was posted to the coral-list Feb 01, 2009

Unfortunately, we have 2 lionfish in a tank at the Little Cayman Research
Centre. Divers caught them last week.
It has been an entire year since the first sighting on Little Cayman.
Several (6) more fish are being reported on the reef in Little Cayman.
Fish are being sighted in Bloody Bay Marine Park which is located on the
north side of the island and on the south side of the island as well.
The local Department of Environment is monitoring the situation.

CCMI completed a rapid assessment in August 2008 and found no lionfish. We
have a rapid assessment planned for August 2009.
Please visit our website if anyone is interested in participating.

Carrie Manfrino
Central Caribbean Marine Institute
PO Box 1461
Princeton, NJ 08540
reefresearch dot org

:cool2:

 

[ScubaRafiki]

In November 07, I had a conversation with someone who works for the DOE on the Caymans. He said that they expected Lionfish within a year - 3 months later the first one was seen on Little Cayman. Then in November 08, one was found on Cayman Brac. In January 09 5 (that I know about) were caught on Grand Cayman (I personally helped with 2 of these) One of them was almost fully grown. I would not be surprised if the Lionfish are already in the Bay Islands - we just haven't seen them yet.

They are very territorial, which makes finding them again fairly easy. We used the end of a speargun to coax it into a large tupperware type box then put the lid on. I know in the Bahamas they are using clear dry bags to catch them. They are also encouraging local fisherman to catch them (and teaching them how to safely deal with them) as apparently they are edible and quite tasty! I believe that last year they culled something like 20,000 lion fish - yet the first sighting there was only in 2004.

Whether we like it or not they are going to be in the Caribbean permanantly. I think the idea that they have for the Caymans is to try to remove all they can from the dive sites - at least that way the other fish can have a safe place to hang out!

I would recommend checking out REEF's website as they are doing a lot of research: Lionfish Research Program | Reef Environmental Education Foundation (REEF)

 

[ScubaRafiki]

Today a lionfish was caught just off the coast by Punta Gorda, Roatan. It was inside the reef and about 20ft deep. The fish was given to the Roatan Marine Park, still alive. Unfortunately it was big - about 8 to 9 inches from the mouth to the base of the tail, which means it has been here for a while. If you are on Facebook you can see images of this fish through the Subway Watersports pages. I'm a techno idiot and can't figure out how to upload them on to Scubaboard - sorry!