National Lionfish Response Plan – Take Survey if You Have Seen Lionfish

The Commonwealth of The Bahamas faces significant challenges in the management and protection of marine resources over the 1,200 kilometer-long archipelago. Stressors on the marine environment include over-fishing, marine and terrestrial sources of pollution, climate change and invasive species. Invasive species are non-native species that become established in a new environment and proliferate and spread in ways that may noticeably impact native populations, species or entire ecosystems. Biological invasions are one of the leading threats to biodiversity worldwide. The recent introduction of the venomous Indo-Pacific lionfish (Pterois volitans) to the western Atlantic Ocean is an ongoing exotic species range expansion with unknown consequences for both the ecology of coastal systems and tropical Atlantic fisheries.

The College of The Bahamas Marine and Environmental Studies Institute (COB-MESI) worked in collaboration with the Department of Marine Resources is launching a long-term National Lionfish Response Project (NLRP) from 2007 to July 2009. Now the University of Miami Coastal Ecology Laboratory has taken over responsibility for lionfish dissections and the on-line questionnaire for the Department of Marine Resources.

The National Lionfish Response Plan entails a partnership between both local and regional government and non-governmental agencies. The NLRP focuses on: 1) ecological research, 2) invasion management and policy development, and 3) educational initiatives. This project will build a body of stakeholders that can contribute to the long-term strategic management plan for marine invaders in The Bahamas.

Initial invasion management and policy development for the NLRP includes the creation of an on-line lionfish sightings reporting system and distribution database. The primary objective of this on-line questionnaire is to therefore collate past, present and future sightings data on the occurrence and distribution of lionfish throughout the Bahamian archipelago by combining information from beach users as well as the local fishing and the recreational diving communities. The results from this questionnaire will aid in building an on-line information network on invasive species in The Bahamas.

You are encouraged to enter each lionfish sighting with unique dates and/or location. Here’s the link to the questionnaire, which seeks information on the amount of focused fishing and lionfish removal going on in The Bahamas, as well as amount of lionfish actually sold or prepared for consumption.