Please Dont Kill the (Hawaiian) Lionfish

While diving off Kona on the island of Hawaii recently, Hailey our divemaster explained to my buddy Luke and I, “we might see a couple of Hawaiian lionfish at this site, we have seen them here recently” showing us a photo in the well-worn fish identification book, she continued, “these lionfish are endemic to Hawaii.  That means they only exist here and are part of the natural reef ecology.  They are not like the invasive lionfish in Florida.  Please don’t kill our lionfish” she exhorted.  I asked if they had venomous spines like the Indonesian lionfish now found throughout the Caribbean and she explained that they did. 

During the dive, as we swam along the reef, Hailey pointed out a couple of lionfish back in the rocks.   From the description in the guidebook, they looked like the red lionfish (Pterois sphex), which is also called a turkeyfish.  The fish looked smaller than the invasive species that I had seen, hunted, and relished in fish tacos two years previously in the Cayman Islands. They also appeared to be more cautious and less out in the open than their Caribbean counterpart.   Could the invasive’s behavior be attributable to having no predator which to avoid, whereas the endemic Hawaiian species does?  As shown in the image below taken in the Cayman Islands, the invasive lionfish in that setting exhibits little evasive behavior when approached and sheltering behavior appeared absent..

Lionfish in the Caribbean are indigenous to the Indo-Pacific area and seem to be most prevalent on the reefs of the Indonesia archipelago.  How they got to the Caribbean and Florida is a matter of speculation.  Some believe that they are the offspring of a half dozen or so lionfish that escape an aquarium during the flooding from Hurricane Andrew in Florida in 1992.  The lionfish is a popular salt water aquarium fish which leads others to attribute their presence to aquarium owners improperly disposing of the fish (as in flushing it down the toilet or tossing it into a storm drain.  Whatever the cause, the fish is now epidemic across much of the tropical and subtropical Atlantic and is decimating indigenous reef species.

Hawaiian Lionfish in the Reef Structure



Close up of the Hawaiian lionfish

A day or so later, at Garden Eel Cove, another divemaster pointed out the during the briefing that lionfish may be present.  Before she could add the exhortation, a pair of experienced divers, a father and his teenage son, ask if the lionfish be killed like they had on a recent trip in Florida, nearly salivating at the prospect.  “No” she stated, explaining that the fish were endemic to Hawaii unlike the invasive species in the Caribbean.

I was struck with the similarities in briefings between the two divemasters, which in part I attribute to the divemasters working for the same company and faced with similar circumstances.  Their information and admonition do point out the importance of local knowledge in diver's minimizing their impacts and knowing the difference between species with a similar common name.  Removal of the invasive in the Caribbean is seen in a positive light and is not only encouraged, it is organized with contests, attempts to create a market for the meat, and development of scuba diving specialty courses for the hunting of lionfish.  Not so in Hawaii.

For me, this drives home the importance of local knowledge when diving an area.  An understanding of endemic species and the role they play on the reef key to an appreciation of a reef ecosystem.  The folks at Kona Diving Company take the time to explain the species and reef ecology.

 

Invasive lionfish in the Cayman Islands.in 2016