A DIVING DISCOVERY 



Upon diving 1 30 feet to explore ghostly 

 wreckage off the coast of North Carolina, 

 Trish Boyer couldn't believe her eyes: "I 

 thought, 'this can't be'." 



Boyer had launched from the Atlantis IV, 

 based in Atlantic Beach, to explore the stern 

 section of the wreck of the Naeco, 40 miles 

 offshore. On Aug. 1 0, 2000, in the midst 

 of colorful sea anemones growing from the 

 sunken tanker, Boyer, a visiting diver from 

 Delaware, was credited as the first person to 

 spot a Pacific lionfish off North Carolina. 



Familiar with the lionfish and its colorful 

 warning signs, Boyer knew not to touch. 

 She had been planning a diving trip to 

 Pacific waters and had done her homework 

 — reading-up on fish native to the Pacific, 

 especially the fish to avoid. 



More surprised than frightened to see a 

 lionfish near North Carolina, Boyer informed 

 Renate Eichinger of Atlantis Charters. 

 Eichinger was skeptical at first, but soon 

 realized that there's no mistaking a lionfish's 

 distinct markings. 



Eichinger handed Boyer a disposable 

 underwater camera — and the photos made 

 national headlines. "Cleariy this was the 

 first of a chain of substantial events — it was 

 terribly exciting," says Boyer. 



Now, divers expect to see lionfish 

 inhabiting North Carolina's shipwrecks. 

 "It was kind of a little learning curve in 

 believing that the/ re there — but now the/ re 

 everywhere," says Eichinger. 



Visit Atlantis Charters at www. 

 atlantischarters.net, click on "Diving." — L. L. 



INVADING THE WEB 



For more information on lionfish, visit 

 www.uncw.edu/nurc/. Go to "What's New" at 

 the bottom of the page and click on the lionfish 

 link to virtually board the R/VCape Fear and 

 check out the crew's daily research log. 



To report sightings, go to http://shrimp. 

 ccfhrb.noaa.gov/lionfish/. Or contact Paula 

 Whitfield at 252/728-871 4, paula.whitp~eld@ 

 noaa.gov. 



SEE FOR YOURSELF 



The North Carolina Aquarium at 

 Roanoke Island has lionfish on exhibit. The 

 Fort Fisher and Pine Knoll Shores aquariums 

 expect to have new exhibits with lionfish 

 in 2006. For more information on the 

 aquariums, go online to www.ncaquariums.com. 



Surfacing with the lionfish creates another 

 range of dangers — this time for the lionfish, 

 according to Morgan Bailey, a safety diver with 

 NURC. As divers transport a live lionfish from 

 the high-pressure environment of the ocean 

 bottom to low-pressure surface waters, the fish's 

 swim bladder expands. 



Normally the swim bladder helps a lionfish 

 control buoyancy. But when brought up by div- 

 ers, the lionfish is incapacitated by the pressure 

 change — reaching the surface resembling a 

 spiny balloon. 



"We use the hypodermic syringe to vent 

 their swim bladders," Bailey says, explaining the 

 decompression process. 



After each 30-minute dive, researchers 

 surface with up to 28 lionfish. The NOAA crew 

 has seen lionfish at 19 different sites and has 

 gathered a total of 155 lionfish specimens, more 

 than five times the initial goal for the study. 



"We're starting to wish for less," says 

 Whitfield, who must dissect the lionfish follow- 

 ing each dive, a task often lasting until midnight. 



With no capabilities for freezing fish 

 onboard the Cape Fear, researchers must dissect 

 the specimens quickly to preserve gonads and 

 stomach organs. 



The simple act of cutting open one lionfish 

 reveals a world of questions that, through future 

 research, will soon render the basic life history of 

 the lionfish in Atlantic waters. 



The dissection exposes female gonads, 

 a sac filled with up to 20,000 tiny, pelagic, or 

 free-floating, eggs from a female ready to spawn. 

 "Now we know that they are also spawning off 

 of North Carolina," says Whitfield, holding the 

 gel-like mass of eggs. 



Inside the gut, Whitfield finds three small 

 reef fish that have been swallowed whole 

 — these fish will be identified back at the Center 

 for Coastal Fisheries and Habitat Research in 

 Beaufort. 



"Their bellies are full of fish, and they have 

 a lot of meat on their bones, so they're healthy," 

 Whitfield explains. 



EVALUATING 

 ECOLOGICAL IMPACTS 



The sheer numbers of lionfish found, and 

 the fact that juvenile and egg-bearing lionfish are 

 among the samples, indicates eradication may be 

 impossible. If further studies by Whitfield locate 

 wintering populations of lionfish, "thoughts 



of eradication should be replaced by serious 

 management consideration," according to an 

 assessment by the NURC crew. 



"They're more prevalent than expected, 

 and they're here to stay," says Doug Kesling, 

 mission coordinator with NURC in Wilmington. 



Species of high commercial value, such as 

 snapper and grouper, may be at risk as lionfish 

 feed on the same food sources and compete for 

 the same habitat. Also, lionfish could prey on 

 the young of important commercial fish that use 

 "live bottom" reefs as nursery grounds, NOAA 

 reports. 



As Whitfield and her crew gather wild 

 specimens in the field, NOAA researchers 

 back in Beaufort are developing techniques 

 to successfully spawn and rear lionfish in the 

 laboratory. 



Supplied with a fresh batch of Whitfield's 

 wild-caught lionfish, researchers perform 

 cutting-edge laboratory studies on the 

 reproductive biology of lionfish. 



James Morris, biologist with NOAA 

 and doctoral student at North Carolina State 

 University, is developing a model to forecast 

 potential lionfish population growth in Atlantic 

 waters. 



Morris is studying both captive and wild- 

 caught lionfish to establish basic information on 

 lionfish reproduction, such as estimates of the 

 number of eggs a female lionfish produces. 



"These experiments have given us insight 

 into the reproductive strategy of lionfish. 

 This is new information that has never been 

 documented before," says Morris. 



Morris also is conducting feeding 

 experiments to determine if there are any 

 potential lionfish predators in the western 

 Atlantic. "This question is important as the many 

 factors that limit population growth are relatively 

 unknown for lionfish," Morris says. Experiments 

 also will help scientists find out what exactly the 

 lionfish prefers to eat. 



By forecasting the rate of population 

 growth over time, scientists can assess the 

 ecological impact of the lionfish invasion. 



The data gathered by NOAA researchers 

 will eventually help answer pressing questions 

 about how lionfish interact with other fish 

 species, like snapper and grouper. 



For now, "What we see in the lab will 

 definitely supplement what we see in the field," 

 says Morris. □ 



COASTWATCH 19 



