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I .cY .. �•«� 11!1 ROM)ZERO."This can get a bit gross,"says Florida Fish and wildlife Conservation (.ontnlission biolog- ical scientist Jeff Beal as he picks up a razor-sharp Scalpel to slice open the body- of a strikingly beautiful,maroon and white zebra-striped fish. I-le smiles and turns to me before ' cutting open the plump, ten-inch long specimen: "You're not t j. . squeamish are you?" With a surgeon's precision,Beal neatly slits open the gut cav w. it),of the fish and deftly lifts away the grayish-white stomach. •:.�' "Oh man!"saps Beal as he points out huge while,t+•axy blobs of :: )'. •r" tissue throughout the innards of the fish. "all of this is inter- — siiiial fat and there's a lot of it, which means he was ven, ven t+'ell•fed.7"hat's_bad news." I've come to Beal's laboratory at the Harbor Branch Oceanographic Institute in Fort Pierce to learn how he and others are waging war against the fish that, according to some marine y- W ' the most " _. "p" �s ;• biologists, may be causing o t devastatin}, ocean inva- t =�y__ ��--�<..,;7;..,�•.:e..^�-�"`t �A --.;�.-..c.',..� ��,. . cion ever" Over the last several decades Pterois volilans, bet ter kno{,n as the red lionfish, has been spotted off the coast of South Florida and throughout the Caribbean and the Gull K t of Mexico. "lionfish.are native to Indo-Pacific waters," says Beal as he Kms` s a break f "Somchot+ takes from dissecting. they turned up in the 4 Atlantic. We're not absolutely sure but we think they were prob- ably ' _ _ =; - - ,.••'" .: ably released into the ocean by Florida-based aquarium o{eners. Because they are a non-native species,they have no natural red ators in our part of the ',w.1.auorm t...w•te'�,.sc.._w.s... .�'+. ._ iy: ,; An invasive species, lionlish have proven to be voracious ' i In his.laboratory at-the Harbor Branch Oceanographic.Utstitute S predators and have been reproducing and spreading,unchecked', in Fort.Pierce,.Florida.Fish and Wildlife Conservation Commission a ; throughout the region.Thep are capable of releasing 30,000 eggs hiologicaI scientist Jeff Beal dissects a lignfish to discover wharir's is as frequently as every four days; that's over two million eggs a been feeding on. year Thep have huge appetites,cari expand their stomachs up to 30 times their original size:and can-consunte prey more than halt _. their own length-.On.atlantic coral reel's they've been known to to the Atlantic Ocean as Burmese `• - pythons are to the Everglades; gobble up 90 percent of juvenile and small fish. Big Trouble As noted marine biologist aitd lionfish expert Mark HLxon "Bigger, actually," says Lad Akins, director of special proj- f t explains, "These are perfectly designed eating machines and ects at Key Largo's Reef Educational Environmental.Foundation; VE eEEGfa they've devastated native fish populations throughout the p M:�-z! E g "Pythons are retry much limited to the Everglades 6u1 lionfish Caribbean and other Atlantic waters."They've eaten through the have spread from Florida to as far north as Forth Carolina=and 1 reefs like a plague of locusts."In layman's language,lionfish are south to Brazil." 183 t 1 s i �42