Most attempts to eradicate invasive species are long, arduous efforts that rarely seem to work. After all, the reason the recently introduced living thing is deemed invasive is because it is at least as (and usually more) adaptive to its new environment than its native competitors. In Jamaica, however, it appears that a national campaign to reduce invasive lionfish is working.
Jamaica's National Environment and Planning Agency reported a 66 percent decrease in lionfish sightings, the Huffington Post reported.
Lionfish eat juvenile fish and destroy area reefs. Compounding their effect is the fact that they weren't being fished and eaten by local populations. (Not only did they have no precedent in the area, but most fishermen were leery of their poisonous tentacles.)Thus, while the populations of other fish were being controlled, lionfish were allowed to exist unchecked.
Now that conservation groups have helped introduce the lionfish as a viable dish (under the campaign "eat sustainable, eat lionfish!"), their numbers are finally being controlled. According to Dayne Buddo, a Jamaican marine ecologist, the major reason for the species' reduction is due to the newfound appetite for their meat.
"After learning how to handle them, the fishermen have definitely been going after them harder, especially spear fishermen. I believe persons here have caught on to the whole idea of consuming them," Buddo said in a phone interview with the HuffPost.
Environmental organizations also encourage divers to capture them whenever they can, according to the HuffPost.
Still, lionfish are firmly engrained in Jamaica's waters. Buddo believes they can be controlled, but he isn't sure if they'll ever leave the area.
"I don't think we'll ever get rid of it, but I think for the most part we can control it, especially in marine protected areas where people are going after it very intensively and consistently," Buddo said.
