Three years ago the first lionfish sighting in the Cayman Islands was reported at a dive site in Little Cayman. Since then lionfish have been found in increasing numbers around all three Cayman Islands.

Although beautiful to look at with their dramatic stripes and feathery fins, lionfish are bad news for all concerned in this part of the world.

Lionfish are not native to Caribbean and Atlantic waters and their presence here makes them an invasive species. Although nobody knows for certain how lionfish came to be in these waters, the most accepted theory is that aquarium specimens were at some point released into the sea, probably off the East coast of the US, either accidentally or intentionally.

Because they have no natural predators in the Atlantic and Caribbean and are thought to reproduce as frequently as every four days, their numbers have multiplied rapidly and they are now found along the entire US East Coast from Florida to Massachusetts, as far east as Bermuda and south throughout the Caribbean and as far south as Brazil.

Lionfish are voracious predators with a particular taste for juvenile fish. This means that once established on a patch of reef they can rapidly decimate resident fish populations. Meanwhile, native fish do not recognize the lionfish as a potential food source and therefore do not prey on it.

The Department of Environment and dive industry professionals are all working together to keep the numbers of these invasive fish in check.

The Department of Environment has for some time been issuing lionfish culling licenses to residents which allow divers and snorkelers to catch and remove the invasive species from Cayman waters.  In order to be issued the license, residents attend a short course which gives an overview of the scope of the problem, how lionfish eat and breed and teaches the safest way to catch them.

Dive professionals around the islands have also been making attempts to introduce native species such as grouper to lionfish as a food source, by hand-feeding them previously caught specimens.

More recently the Marine Conservation Board approved Cayman dive operators to teach a new PADI specialty course: the Lionfish Tracker Distinctive Specialty course. The dive industry needs all the manpower it can get to fight this invasion and welcomes the participation of interested visitors.

Several dive centres run regular lionfish culling dives and occasional tournaments and local restaurants have joined in the battle against the lionfish by adding them to their menus. Divers can sell the fish they catch to participating restaurants.

With a little careful handling to remove the venomous spines, lionfish have a delicately-flavoured white flesh that is delicious when cooked. Unlike other fish species whose populations are declining, the more lionfish that are eaten, the greater the benefit to fish stocks of other species. 

While it would be unrealistic to hope to completely eliminate lionfish from Cayman waters, the efforts being made to control their numbers is proving effective. The quick response to lionfish sightings in the Cayman Islands has been key and it is hoped that if these efforts continue, native marine life can at least continue to survive alongside the invasive lionfish.