9th July 2013, Placencia, Belize – Along Belize’s world heritage site-listed barrier reef, coastal communities are making waves in fight against a rapacious predator.
At 11am on Tuesday, 2 July, the first box of filleted invasive lionfish left Belize international airport bound for Minneapolis, Minnesota.
Its contents: 5.2 kg of the invasive lionfish, Pterois volitans, a species that poses one of the greatest threats to the sustainability of coral reefs and fisheries throughout the Caribbean region.
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First released accidentally into the Caribbean near Florida by aquarists in the 1980s, the predatory fish from the Indo-Pacific has no natural predators in the Atlantic, and an exploding population is steadily eating its way across the entire Caribbean Sea. From the Bahamas to Barbados, coral reefs – and the traditional fisheries they support – are now under siege from this unforeseen threat.
(Above) A lionfish’s stomach contents, including a juvenile blue tang, a …