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Grades 4-6

An Alien Invasion

By Kathryn R. Satterfield

The warm, clear waters of the Bahamas teem with life. Flashy fish dart in and out of colorful corals. Now, a newcomer threatens to ruin the delicate ecosystem of one of the world's largest reef systems. An ecosystem is a partnership between living things and their surroundings.

The red lionfish usually lives in coral reefs in the Indian and Pacific oceans. But the species is showing up in the Caribbean Sea and the Atlantic Ocean. Scientists are worried. A species can do damage in places where it doesn't belong.

How did these lionfish end up so far from home? As wayward pets. Sometimes, owners return the fish to the wild. In one case, six lionfish spilled into a Florida bay in 1992 when Hurricane Andrew shattered their aquarium.

Native creatures in the Caribbean and Atlantic have never seen anything like the lionfish. It does not have any predators and it has a huge appetite. The 18-inch fish gobbles up creatures big and small. The lionfish "has an unfair advantage," Lad Akins, of the Reef Environmental Education Foundation, told TFK. He heads a program that wants to keep the lionfish at bay. "This is the perfect invader," he says.

Akins says that the native species in the area might eventually learn to live with the lionfish. But that could take thousands of years - without human help.

One possible way to tame the lionfish is to find an animal that would eat it. But even the ocean's fiercest feeders can't stomach the outsider. "The majority of sharks turn up their noses," Akins says. "Lionfish have a nasty, venomous spine."

Next: Coral Reef Alert