Lars Chittka

set up to see who can catch the most. The Environment Education Foundation hosted its third ‘lionfish derby’ last month off Florida, outside the reserve, with more than $3,000 in prize money for the team catching the most fish — 109 were killed. In the waters around the Bahamas, which don’t have the same protection as Florida Keys, more than 2,000 lionfish have been killed over the past two years. “People have a sense that the waters they love are being invaded,” says Renata Lana, a spokesperson for the National Oceanic and Atmospheric Administration. This year, the agency launched an ‘eat lionfish’ campaign aimed at creating a market for them in seafood restaurants and thus further prompting divers to hunt them. NOAA calls the lionfish a “delicious, delicately flavoured fish” with a taste and texture similar to grouper, snapper or hogfish. A few restaurants in the US and the Caribbean are now serving it. But “it is tough for me to get,” says chef James Clark in South Carolina. “Sometimes fishermen do not want to handle it on their boat.” Scuba divers are experimenting with new ways to eliminate the lionfish, developing new spears to catch the fish. “Six months ago, I hadn’t seen one,” says Jason Doty, in Florida. “Now I will kill 12 in one dive.” But, in spite of the battle, researchers fear that the lionfish could become one of the worst marine invasions of an alien species in history. We probably cannot completely eradicate lionfish. Only nature can do that, says one researcher. Scientists agree hunting may help, but it won’t halt the incredible population boom of lionfish that has seen densities increase 700 per cent from 2004 to 2008. “The government is promoting lionfish as a do-good dish that helps to balance ocean ecology,” says Lana. It is one of the few examples of a species that cannot be overfished. “It’s one of the few fish people can eat out of existence with a clear conscience”, she says.