Live lionfish serves as an object lesson

ST. CROIX — William Coles, chief of environmental education for the Department of Planning and Natural Resources Fish and Wildlife Division, has a new tool in the fight against invading Pacific lionfish: a live Pacific lionfish.

Coles uses the Pacific lionfish, which a dive instructor scooped up in a box recently in about 30 feet of water in Cane Bay, as a visual aid when he does educational outreach.

“It’s important, so they can understand how the fish looks while it’s swimming,” Coles said. “Until you see it moving, you just don’t have that connect of how it operates and how it might look in the ocean.”

The striped fish with fanlike fins and venomous dorsal spines is a non-native species and is different from the scorpionfish, which is sometimes called “lionfish” locally.

The Pacific lionfish has a voracious appetite for smaller fish and has no known predators in the Caribbean.

Local biologists and others fear that the invading fish could wreak havoc on the territory’s coral reefs and fisheries and eventually on the business sector, including the tourism industry.

A local public education campaign and a grassroots group of dedicated divers, snorkelers and fishermen who are keeping an eye out for the fish — and killing them when they’re spotted — has helped curb the invasion.

The 2-inch Pacific lionfish captured alive in Cane Bay now swims around in a small aquarium in Coles’ office, occasionally fanning its fins out in an impressive display.

Coles said his observations of his live specimen have revealed behaviors of which he was unaware.

One of those behaviors is that at night, the fish would float upside down, just below the surface of the water, he said.

When the lights came on or the fish sensed motion, it would right itself and drop to the bottom of the tank, Coles said.

That has led Coles to hypothesize that the species may have found its way into local waters by floating along surface currents when feeding is inadequate in one location.

“That may be how they end up settling in the islands,” he said, adding that after storms around Easter, “we all of a sudden had a lot of lionfish about the same size.”

Coles said Wednesday that 119 Pacific lionfish have been captured in local waters, around all three islands. They ranged in size from one that was just more than an inch long to one that was 14 inches long.

Wildlife officials are asking the public to mark the area if they spot a lionfish and report it.

Coles said he believes the live fish will be very helpful in educational outreach, particularly now that school is starting.

“It's helpful to see something alive, to see how it moves,” he said. “We can take it to schools to make presentations to kids. They need to know this is what it it looks like. This is what you don’t touch. Mainly for safety, we want to make sure people don’t get hurt by these.”

Those who would like Coles to do an educational presentation on Pacific lionfish can call 773-1082.

To report a lionfish sighting, call 693-1393 on St. Thomas;  773-1082 or 643-0800 on St. Croix; and 693-8950 ext. 225 or 224 on St. John.

— Contact Joy Blackburn at 774-8772 ext. 455 or e-mail jblackburn@dailynews.vi.

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