The Caribbean Ghost Fish: Invisible Threat, Visible Problems?

I wasn't planning on doing another post this week, but when there's a ghost fish in the news, I reckon that's worthy of some brief investigating. It also ties in with my ocean ecosystem post earlier in the week (avoiding terrestrial bias ftw). Now, let's get ghost busting!

You may be wondering, ''ghost fish?', that sounds like a really awful villain from a Scooby Doo cartoon (it wasn't the ghost fish, it was the sheriff, as always), has The Inspector gone mad?' But no I'm serious. Well kind of...

The fish I'm actually talking about is The Venomous Red Lionfish. It is dubbed 'the ghost fish of the coral reefs' as it can turn invisible to its prey.

A venomous red lionfish.

Owing to its hunting prowess and lack of natural predator or parasite its colonising success is very high. This has allowed it to become highly abundant, which is good for the lionfish, but not so much for biodiversity and could potentially cause an 'environmental disaster'.

The species is thought to have been introduced by humans into Floridian waters, but is now present in the Amazon, The Bahamas, The Caribbean and North Carolina's coastline, so its impact could potentially become much greater.

See full article here: http://www.jobsnhire.com/articles/6298/20131021/lionfish-invasion-threatening-atlantic-ocean-ecosystem.htm

Over and out

The Invader Inspector

EDIT: Just came across this , number 10 covers some Lionfish impacts in the Caribbean.