Lionfish Invasion Reaches Honduras Bay Islands

According to my colleague Nic Bach, Director of Marine Infrastructure at the Roatan Marine Park, invasive Lionfish (Pterois volitans/miles) have now reached the Bay Islands of Honduras, A report by Nic indicates that on May 22nd, a dive shop on Roatan reported the capture of an 8-inch (front of mouth to base of tail) specimen near Punta Gorda in the NE part of Roatan.

The specimen was captured in approximately 7 meters of water, inside the barrier reef and about 200 m from shore. The specimen in apparently being kept in an aquarium and will be used for educational purposes. As yet, there have been no further sightings but we expect many more in the coming future.

Regular readers will recall that I've been monitoring the rapid expansion of invasive Lionfish throughout the Atlantic and Caribbean. It was only about five months ago that I reported on the first confirmed Lionfish sighting along the Mesoamerican Barrier Reef in Belize.

For a broader discussion of the impacts and implications of invasive Lionfish expansion and prospects for a non-analog future, check out my post Brave New World from 2007.