CHARLESTON, S.C. (AP) — The public is getting a chance to enlist in the war against the lionfish invasion along the coast of the Carolinas.
The candy-striped fish with venomous spines and voracious appetites were first spotted off the coast about a decade ago after appearing off Florida in the late 1980s.
Lionfish, which have no natural predators in the Atlantic, are native to the tropical Pacific and Indian oceans and are thought to have been introduced in the Americas when fish caught for aquariums escaped.
The Florida-based marine educational foundation REEF is holding workshops in the Carolinas to provide information about lionfish and how humans can help by doing everything from reporting sightings and catching them to ordering them when eating out.
A workshop was scheduled Wednesday in Wilmington, N.C., with a second being held Thursday at the South Carolina Aquarium in Charleston. A third session is scheduled next week in Morehead City, N.C.
Lionfish are found year-round off the coast of the Carolinas and, in warmer weather, have been sighted as far north as Massachusetts, said Martha Klitzkie, the environmental group's general manager.
"They prey on a wide variety of species like juvenile lobsters and snappers — fish that are commercially important and recreationally important," she said.
"Around Charleston we have seen them consistently for 12 years," said Arnold Postell, a South Carolina Aquarium biologist who helped organized Thursday's workshop.
The reefs off the South Carolina are nurseries to snapper and other species.
"That's the food source for the lionfish," he said. "When are they going to have an effect to the point where we don't see any adult fish? It's the long-term prognosis people are concerned about and there's no solution to this problem, it seems."
In Carteret County, N.C., earlier this summer there was a 10-day tournament to spear lionfish. The event was held draw attention to the lionfish problem and to encourage people to eat them.
Lionfish are easy to catch because they tend to remain stationary until they strike at their passing prey, said Keri Kenning of REEF, a scheduled speaker at Thursday's meeting in Charleston.
There is a thriving lionfish industry in the Florida Keys, she said.
"People love eating them because they are exotic and people love eating them because they are doing something for conservation," she said.
Lionfish are a light flaky fish without a strong fish flavor. REEF's website includes information on handling, filleting and preparing them as well as a list of restaurants that serve them. One of those restaurants, Fleet Landing, is in Charleston.
In some places traps can be used to capture lionfish. But those aren't legal everywhere, Kenning said, requiring more labor intensive catches by diving with a net or spears.
"They do have venomous spines," Klitzkie said. "But once those spines are removed they can be handled like any other fish and filleted and eaten."
The difficulty in handling lionfish has prevented them from being more widely offered at restaurants, Klitzkie sad.
"One of the ways this species could be controlled is if there is an increased interest in the food market," she said. Or, as the group's web site suggests "Eat 'em to beat 'em."
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Online:
REEF: http://www.reef.org/
South Carolina Aquarium: http://scaquarium.org
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