Lionfish are beautiful to look at. We saw them when we were diving in Thailand (Bob saw one a bit too close for comfort). Deadly to touch and an invasive species in the Caribbean. When we first began to dive here there were no lionfish in the area. They began to appear in about 1992 after Hurricane Andrew (one theory is an inadvertent spill from an aquarium). They have no natural predators and are voracious, non-discriminating eaters. They are becoming quite a problem. We saw 10 of them on one of our dives. They are easy to avoid, they hang out in caves and under overhanging rocks. Most people who get stung by them are attempting to spear them, and usually it is when they have speared one fish, have it on the spear, and go after a second fish.There are signs posted around the island educating people about them. Because they are a relatively new invader, people did not know about them, about their dangers and their habits. There is now a campaign to get people to eat them, apparently they are a tasty fish, in an effort to help eradicate them. Based on the numbers we saw, it will be an uphill battle.
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