The Role of Citizen Science in the Research and Management of Invasive Lionfish across the Western Atlantic

Clements, Kaylin R.; Karp, Philip; Harris, Holden E.; Ali, Fadilah; Candelmo, Alli; Rodríguez, Sara Juliana; Balcázar-Escalera, Cristina; Fogg, Alexander Q.; Green, Stephanie; Solomon, Jennifer

doi:10.3390/d13120673

Cited by 11 publications

(14 citation statements)

References 78 publications

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“…Although market-based approaches have been used in the region with mixed results (Chapman et al, 2016;Quintana et al, 2022), a well-managed one could contribute significantly to the conservation of Florida's marine ecosystems, especially coral reefs that have been negatively impacted by invasive lionfish. Given that regular removal of lionfish has been the most effective tool used thus far (Clements et al, 2021), our study indicates that improving the restaurant supply chain for invasive lionfish can help control its population, thereby reducing negative ecological impacts. The utilization of market approaches to eradicate lionfish in Florida could have compounding positive impacts on native reef systems in the Western Atlantic at large by potentially preventing further impacts, and improving the health of key marine fish stocks, habitats and critical marine ecological systems (Duarte et al, 2020).…”

Section: Conservation Benefitsmentioning

confidence: 91%

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Serving conservation from reef to plate: Barriers and opportunities for invasive lionfish consumption in restaurants

Smith

Burgess

Clements

et al. 2023

Aquatic Conservation

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Invasive lionfish (Pterois volitans, Pterois miles), introduced to Florida in the 1980s, colonized coral reef ecosystems in the western Atlantic and have been documented beyond recreational diving depths. In addition to threatening coral reef ecosystems, invasive lionfish have been linked to economic damage in the form of reduced native fish yields for local fishers and high management costs incurred in the physical removal of lionfish. While few examples exist of successful management of marine invasive species, studies show that lionfish removal can mitigate their harmful impacts. One promising market‐based approach that offers benefits to both human livelihoods and marine ecosystems is increasing the demand for the consumption of lionfish. This study focuses on Florida's consumptive lionfish market and fills a gap in understanding of the lionfish supply chain for Florida's restaurant industry. Twenty culinary professionals in Florida were interviewed to determine their perceptions of barriers and opportunities for increasing their use of lionfish. The most commonly identified barriers were price and consistency of supply, while the most prominent opportunities were improved awareness and culinary potential. Conservation managers, culinary professionals and policymakers should leverage these findings to facilitate opportunities, address barriers and promote public education about invasive lionfish and their impacts.

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Section: Conservation Benefitsmentioning

confidence: 91%

“…In Florida specifically, it can evolve solutions to the barriers that prevent the lionfish fishery from scaling up (Clements et al, 2021).…”

Section: Encouraging and Establishing Partnerships Centered On Conser...mentioning

confidence: 99%

Serving conservation from reef to plate: Barriers and opportunities for invasive lionfish consumption in restaurants

Smith

Burgess

Clements

et al. 2023

Aquatic Conservation

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“…For lionfish management, this has included volunteers, citizen scientists, fishers, seafood wholesalers and retailers, chefs, students and local citizens. Stakeholder participation in lionfish research has been particularly effective for facilitating monitoring and control efforts for collecting specimens, reporting observations, and the dissemination of information (Clements et al, 2021). For example, in Bonaire, culled lionfish were used to study their invasion ecology, and partnerships were formed between the management agency (Stichting Nationale Parken Bonaire), a research facility (CIEE Research Station, Bonaire), dive operators, and volunteer divers (Ali, 2017).…”

Section: Community and Stakeholders Should Be Engaged To Facilitate L...mentioning

confidence: 99%

“…The risk of abuse was mitigated by (1) gear restrictions that mandated use of short pole spears (e.g., less than 1 m in length), which are largely ineffective in harvesting most other fishes, and (2) pursuing a participatory approach by working with scuba divers, local stakeholders and organizations. These participatory management approaches for lionfish removals, monitoring, and research appear to have largely resulted in cumulative positive social, economic, and ecological effects (Reed, 2008;Clements et al, 2021). In the Mediterranean, lionfish management in Cyprus [e.g., The Underwater Research and Imaging Center (URIC) and RELIONMED projects] has demonstrated similar successes for awareness programs, control, monitoring and data collection (Kleitou et al, 2019;Kleitou et al, 2021a).…”

Section: Policy Changes To Permit Lionfish Removalmentioning

confidence: 99%

Lessons From the Western Atlantic Lionfish Invasion to Inform Management in the Mediterranean

Ulman¹,

Ali

Harris

et al. 2022

Front. Mar. Sci.

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Major invasions of Indo-Pacific lionfish (Pterois volitans and P. miles) are underway in the Western Atlantic Ocean and the Mediterranean Sea. While the establishment of lionfish in the Western Atlantic is perhaps the most well-studied marine fish invasion to date, the rapidly expanding invasion in the Mediterranean is more recent and has received less attention. Here we review and synthesize successes and failures from two decades of lionfish management in the Western Atlantic to give policy recommendations for their management in the Mediterranean. Two failed approaches that were attempted multiple times in the Western Atlantic and that we advise against are (1) feeding lionfish to native fish to promote predation and (2) implementing bounty programs to incentivize lionfish harvest. Broadly, the most important management lessons that we recommend include (1) conducting routine removals by spearfishing with scuba, which can effectively suppress local abundances of lionfish; (2) encouraging the development of recreational and commercial lionfish fisheries, which can promote long-term, sustainable lionfish population control; and, (3) engaging local communities and resource users (e.g., with lionfish removal tournaments), which can concurrently achieve multiple objectives of promoting lionfish removals, market-development, research, and public education. Managers in the Western Atlantic often needed to adapt current conservation policies to enable lionfish removals in areas where spearfishing with scuba was otherwise prohibited for conservation purposes. The risk of abusing these policies was mitigated through the use of gear restrictions, diver trainings, and through participatory approaches that integrated scuba divers and stakeholder organizations in lionfish research and management. Our review of policies and practices in the Mediterranean Sea found that many of our recommended lionfish management approaches are not being done and indicate potential opportunities to implement these. We expect and fully recommend that work continues towards multinational cooperation to facilitate regional coordination of research, control, and management efforts with respect to the Mediterranean lionfish invasion. As with other major biological invasions, lionfish are unconstrained by political borders and their control will require rapid and strategic management approaches with broad cooperation among and between governments and stakeholders.

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“…Controlling invasive lionfish (Pterois volitans/miles complex) populations is a major objective for marine conservation and fishery managers in the western Atlantic Ocean (Morris et al, 2012;Hixon et al, 2016;Sutherland et al, 2017) and the Mediterranean Sea (Kletou et al, 2016;Savva et al, 2020;Ulman et al, 2020). To date, removal efforts have primarily utilized spearfishing by SCUBA divers (Morris et al, 2012;Clements et al, 2021), which can efficiently remove lionfish (Usseglio et al, 2017;Harris et al, 2019;Ulman et al, 2022) and reduce local lionfish densities regions (Green et al, 2014;Harms-Tuohy et al, 2018;Harris et al, 2019). Market demand for invasive lionfish has also increased (Blakeway et al, 2019;Blakeway et al, 2021;Bogdanoff et al, 2020), and commercial fisheries have developed for lionfish in some areas (Chapman et al, 2016;Harris et al, 2020a;Ulman et al, 2022).…”

Section: Introductionmentioning

confidence: 99%

Three trap designs evaluated for a deepwater lionfish fishery

et al. 2023

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A deepwater (>40 m) fishery for invasive lionfish (Pterois volitans/miles) offers a potential means to control invasive lionfish densities and mitigate their impacts on reefs too deep for SCUBA removals. Trapping could provide a scalable solution—if an effective fishing gear with minimal environmental impacts could be permitted and adopted by fishers. We tested the efficacy of wooden slat lobster traps, wire sea bass traps, and experimental non-containment Gittings traps. One hundred deployments of each trap type were made at 120 mesophotic (38–78 m deep) natural reef sites in the northeastern Gulf of Mexico (29.6–30.1°N, 86.1–87.6°W). Reef sites were surveyed with remotely operated vehicles (ROV) before and after trap deployments, and remote time-lapse video cameras were affixed above 86 traps to sample in situ recruitment to the traps. The video data showed that lionfish were attracted to the vicinity of the three trap types at similar rates, but that lionfish rarely entered the lobster or sea bass traps. The high bycatch rates of sea bass traps suggested their use is likely unsuitable for targeting lionfish. Lobster traps had lower rates of bycatch, but their relatively high ratio of bycatch-to-lionfish catches suggests that modifications will be needed to make them more efficient. The Gittings traps had the highest lionfish catch rates and lowest bycatches of native fishes, but operational issues were also identified. They failed to open on 20% of deployments and one entangled a green sea turtle (Chelonia mydas). Even with the best-performing trap design, the average catch rate of lionfish was less than one lionfish per trap. A potential explanation could be the low biomass of lionfish observed during the ROV surveys, which averaged 0.3 kg lionfish per site. The time-lapse video data suggested that lionfish recruitment to Gittings traps could increase with higher densities of lionfish on the nearby reefs, if traps were retrieved after approximately two days of deployment, and if traps were retrieved during dawn or dusk. Further research, development, and testing is needed for lionfish traps, and critical bio- and techno-economic assessments appear warranted to evaluate the feasibility of a deepwater lionfish fishery.

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The Role of Citizen Science in the Research and Management of Invasive Lionfish across the Western Atlantic

Cited by 11 publications

References 78 publications

Serving conservation from reef to plate: Barriers and opportunities for invasive lionfish consumption in restaurants

Serving conservation from reef to plate: Barriers and opportunities for invasive lionfish consumption in restaurants

Lessons From the Western Atlantic Lionfish Invasion to Inform Management in the Mediterranean

Three trap designs evaluated for a deepwater lionfish fishery

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