Tuesday, September 12, 2006

Scary invaders in Long Island Sound

Venomous and scary-looking Pacific lionfish are invading the US East coast, as far north as Long Island Sound.

Divers have captured hundreds of lionfish this summer. “For us to be finding that many, there must be thousands and thousands more out there,” said Todd R. Gardner, a biologist at Atlantis Marine World aquarium in Riverhead. “It’s a population explosion.”

Nobody knows how the lionfish arrived, what the impacts are, and whether they'll survive winter's cold water (doubtful).

Increasing Atlantic sightings suggest that lionfish are in the Atlantic to stay, at least in the warmer waters further south.

1 comment:

Anonymous said...

So far three have been found in Rhode Island this year. I just caught one this morning.

They won't survive the winter, but it was pretty exciting. I've been searching for the past two weeks since the first one was spotted. My guess is this is as far north as they will appear and are unlikely to round Cape Cod.