Tag: lionfish

  • Interview with Abel Valdivia about lionfish and biotic resistance

    I LOVE this interview PeerJ just posted (and excerpted below) with Bruno lab PhD student Abel Valdivia about our new paper on lionfish and biotic resistance.   PJ: What were your motivations for undertaking this research? AV: The invasion of lionfish into the Caribbean basin over the past ten years provides a unique possibility to study marine…

  • Really Dumb Idea #247: Training sharks to eat dead lionfish

    Below is a repost from the graduate student-written Under The C blog by Serena Hackerott.  Since the lionfish invasion hit the news, people have suggested that native predators will eat and control invasive lionfish. For more information check out our previous posts The Great Debate: Predators vs Lionfish and Who’s “Lyin’” about Lionfish?. But with current evidence suggesting…

  • How to extract lionfish otoliths

    Do you need to know how to get ear bones out of lionfish? Or are you just curious to know what the inside of a lionfish’s head looks like? Either way check out this film shot on location in Abaco, Bahamas featuring the crack lionfish catching team, Serena Hackerott and Katie Dubois. [vimeo]https://vimeo.com/67320381[/vimeo] Otoliths are teeny…

  • From lionfish hunter to little miss marine biologist

    Below is a guest post from Serena Hackerott, an undergraduate in my lab. After 103 lionfish, 186 otoliths, 5 weeks of field work, and 3 weeks of lab work, I feel like I have become a “real Marine Biologist.” As the girl who has always loved the ocean and wanted to be a marine biologist…

  • Lionfish: from the spear, to supper, to science

    Below is a guest post by Serena Hackerott, an undergraduate in my lab. This summer has been such an exciting adventure! I have gained invaluable research experience and have learned a lot about working in marine science. My project has been filled with surprises, adventures, challenges, and many important lessons. One of my favorite experiences…

  • Mark Hixon’s lionfish Tedx

    This is a talk by Marine Ecologist and reef fish ecology expert Dr Mark Hixon of OSU.  I love it!  Mark and I apparently have a lot in common.  I love my job too.  But the special knowledge it gives you – the painful and needless loss of the ocean’s biodiversity – can be a…

  • Scourge of the Lionfish

    Scourge of the Lionfish

    From a great piece in the NYT by Carl Safina.  About 20 years ago, one of the world’s most beautiful and otherworldly fish, the red lionfish, started showing up in south Florida and the Caribbean. Now, they’re a plague. Millions of them live from northeastern South America to New York, from water you can stand…

  • Lionfish continue their upriver march

    Lionfish continue their upriver march

    Below is a repost of a piece by Zack from Abaco Scientist about the the lionfish invasion of the Loxahatchee River in southeastern Florida. I grew up on the Loxahatchee, fishing and boating in it, and I knew every nook and cranny in the map below. The snook fishing was amazing and it wasn’t uncommon to see manatees.…

  • Lionfish: the true pirates of the Caribbean

    Lionfish: the true pirates of the Caribbean

    This is a guest post by Serena Hackerott, an undergraduate in my lab. In the photo below, Serena is teaching me how to extract the tiny otoliths from a lionfish she captured.  Lionfish are the first marine fish to successfully invade the Caribbean. Lionfish are “piscivores”, or predatory fish that eat other fish, native to the…

  • Finding fish in the wrong place

    This gorgeous woodcut print is the work of Jenny Pope, one of my favourite printmakers. Lots of her art is available to buy on her website and she’s promised me she will soon be blogging about lionfish. But first, here are my thoughts on seeing my first lionfish in the wrong place. Before I arrived…